Coincidentally, Amitabh Bachchan Will Receive D.Phalke Award On Rajesh Khanna’s 77th Birth Anniv (Dec 29)

Chaitanya  Padukone

As per the original schedule of the prestigious 66^th National Awards presentation ceremony, superstar Amitabh Bachchan was to have received the prestigious Indian cinema-centric Dadasaheb Phalke National Award on (Dec 23^rd) Monday, along with Akshay Kumar, Ayushmann Khurana and Vicky Kaushal at the ceremony where Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu presented them.  Unfortunately the Big B was unwell and had to excuse himself from the ceremony. In his tweet, the Big B said “Down with fever .. ! Not allowed to travel .. will not be able to attend National Award tomorrow in Delhi .. so unfortunate .. my regrets” Now if all goes well, and Bachchan-saab steadily recovers ( which he will--our earnest prayers), he is expected to personally attend  the special ‘high-tea’ ceremony hosted this Sunday by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan  for all the Award winners. During this Presidential ceremony, Amitabh-jee would be honoured with the Phalke Award by the President himself. What is intriguing enough that coincidentally, this Sunday ( Dec 29^th) happens to be the 77^th birth anniversary of  the first superstar Rajesh Khanna.  As is known, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh have acted together in only two Bollywood landmark movies  ‘Anand’ and ’Namak Haram’ both directed by the iconic Hrishikesh Mukherjee. In fact it is in ‘Namak Haram’ that audiences get to observe  hard-hitting shades of the ‘angry-young-man’ in the character Vikram played by the Big B. Especially in that volatile dramatic scene, where Amitabh threatens the entire basti-dwellers with dire consequences. This is after he meets his close buddy ( Rajesh Khanna) who has been assaulted by the irate labourers staying there, when his actual identity gets exposed.

Many months before Khanna passed away owing to a terminal critical illness, Amitabh was frequently keeping personal tabs over Kaka-ji’s ( Khanna)  health condition. Not only did he visit Khanna in the hospital, AB also attended the funeral last rites, along with his son Abhishek Bachchan. One also recalls how the Big B gracefully presented the IIFA Lifetime Achievement ( year 2009) Award to Rajesh at a foreign location. Where Kakaji fondly delivered his sentimental acceptance-speech and referred on stage to Amitabh as  his ‘Babu Moshai’ ( AB’s character from ‘Anand’) which elicited a thundering  ovation from the audience.

For more Bollywood updates, follow Bollyy!

Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Amitabh Bachchan, D.Phalke Award, Rajesh Khanna