Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri announced on 21 February that the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ has received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2023 in the Best Film category.
Vivek Agnihotri, the director of the controversial movie, tweeted that “The Kashmir Files” had won the best film award at the 2023 Dadasaheb Phalke Awards, he also used the hashtag #DadaSahebPhalkeAwards2023. However, this caused confusion among netizens regarding the authenticity of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
However, it is worth noting here that the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and Dadasaheb International Film Festival Award are two different awards.
According to the Director of the Film Festival, the award given in the name of Dadasaheb Phalke is the most prestigious and oldest award given by the Government of India. This award is given in the memory of Dadasaheb, who is called the father of Indian cinema. It started in the year 1969.
On the other hand, if we talk about the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Award, it is a private organization started in the year 2012.
In a tweet, renowned film critic Ajay Brahmatmaj wrote, ‘The funny and bitter truth is that this award issued in the name of Dadasaheb Phalke is being seen by the members of the film fraternity as equivalent to the Dadasaheb Phalke Award given by the Government of India. I request the Government of India and the Ministry of Information Broadcasting to stop it as soon as possible.”
Dadasaheb Phalke’s grandson Chandrashekhar Pusalkar recently while talking to the media said that “I was invited by many people as a special guest at the Dadasaheb Phalke Awards held in Mumbai. I saw that after taking money, awards are being given to such people who are not even worthy of this award. When I saw all this, I stopped attending any such award functions. You will be surprised to know that once a famous Marathi actress got a call that she has met an organizer of Dadasaheb Phalke Award in America and is demanding one million for the award. I was surprised to hear this and then felt very sad.”