Anant Nag is getting the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024. The government made the announcement on Wednesday, and the 78-year-old will collect Indian cinema's highest honour at the National Film Awards ceremony in Kevadia, Gujarat, on September 22.

It caps a run few actors get in one calendar year. Nag was also named among nine Padma awardees from Karnataka earlier this cycle, alongside two folk artists from the north of the state. Now comes the Phalke, which sits above every other honour the industry hands out.

The numbers on his career are the kind that stop making sense after a point. More than 250 films across five decades, in Kannada and in Hindi, plus a parallel life on stage that goes back just as far. He built his name in Kannada cinema with Minchina Ota and Hamsageethe, and crossed into Hindi arthouse work with Shyam Benegal's Ankur and Manthan, two films that any serious account of 1970s Indian cinema has to reckon with.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi put out a note on X congratulating him. "For several decades, his effortless performances, remarkable versatility and brilliance have left a very strong mark on Indian cinema, particularly Kannada cinema," he wrote. "In whichever role he has played, he brought rare depth and authenticity." Modi called it "a richly deserved honour for a truly distinguished artist."

The Press Information Bureau's release said the award came on the recommendation of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award Selection Committee, citing Nag's contribution to Indian cinema and what it called an illustrious journey that has inspired generations across the industry.

What's notable here is how little the Phalke depends on a single blockbuster or a single decade. Nag's case is built on range, someone who could do the interior stillness Benegal wanted in Ankur and then go do populist Kannada cinema without either side of that career looking like a compromise. Kannada film circles have long treated him as a reference point for actors half his age, and this award is the state agreeing with that assessment on the record.

The ceremony itself is still six days out. Kevadia, where the Statue of Unity stands, has hosted the National Film Awards before, and this year's edition will fold the Phalke presentation into the wider evening of honours for 2024's best in Indian cinema. Nag has given at least one interview since the Padma announcement talking about longevity in Kannada film, so a public appearance and comment around September 22 looks likely, though nothing beyond the ceremony date itself has been confirmed yet.