Rajinikanth to be honoured with the Icon of Golden Jubilee award at IFFI 2019

Actor Rajinikanth will be honoured with the Icon of Golden Jubilee award, while French actress Isabelle Huppert will receive the lifetime achievement award for a foreign artist at the 50th edition of IFFI.

Born and brought up in Bangalore, Rajinikanth performed several jobs including that of a coolie, carpenter and a bus conductor in the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS), before getting in acting. He began his film career with director K Balachander's 1975 Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal. He has acted in over 160 films, predominantly in Tamil cinema.

His style and mannerisms earned several recognitions like National Film Awards, Padma Bhushan (2000), Padma Vibhushan (2016) and IIFA's Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year. The latest honour to come his way is none other than the Icon of Golden Jubilee of IFFI 2019.

I&B minister Prakash Javdekar has now announced that the award for the Icon of Golden Jubilee of IFFI 2019 is being given to superstar Rajinikanth. It is conferred to him in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema during the past several decades.

Prakash Javdekar took to his Twitter account and wrote, "In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, during the past several decades, I am happy to announce that the award for the ICON OF GOLDEN JUBILEE OF #IFFI2019 is being conferred on cine star Shri S Rajinikanth."

In response to the Minister's tweet, the superstar tweeted, "I thank the government of India for this prestigious honour bestowed upon me on the golden jubilee of the International film festival of India."

Prakash Javdekar also announced that the lifetime achievement award for a Foreign Artiste will be conferred on French actress Isabelle Huppert. The I&B minister tweeted, "Happy to announce that Life Time Achievement Award for a 'Foreign Artiste' will be conferred on French Actress Isabelle Hupert. #IFFI2019 #IFFIGoa50."

This year the focus is also on Women directors and there are 50 women director's films that will be screened at IFFI. Out of more than 200 films, 24 films are in a race for Oscars this year out of which 4 of them are in a race for international competition at Oscars.

IFFI Goa is all set to take place from 20th November to 28th November and this year being the 50th edition, the plans are to make it bigger and better with I & B Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar and Chief Minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant keenly following each and every development related to the festival.