National Film Award is the most respectable honour an Indian artiste can receive in their career. The National Film Award for Best Actor was instituted in 1967 and Uttam Kumar was its first recipient. The latest recipient is Allu Arjun, who won the honour for his phenomenal performance in Pushpa The Rise: Part 1.
Kamal Haasan, Mammootty, and Ajay Devgn have won the National Film Award for Best Actor thrice. Sanjeev Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Mithun Chakraborty, Mohanlal, and Dhanush have been awarded twice with this honour. Manoj Bajpayee has been a recipient of this honour only once in his career. The one actor who has won the National Film Award for Best Actor the most times is Amitabh Bachchan, who has been awarded with this honour four times in his career.
Bachchan's first National Film Award for Best Actor came for his memorable performance as Vijay Deenanath Chauhan in Mukul Anand's 1990 film Agneepath. The legendary actor received his second honour for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 2005 film Black in which he played Debraj Sahai, a teacher of a visually and hearing impaired woman named Michelle McNally, essayed by Rani Mukerji.
For the 2009 R. Balki directorial Paa, the veteran actor received his third National Award for his brilliant performance as Auro, a 12-year-old boy having the rare genetic condition of progeria. Amitabh's fourth National Award was for playing a cantankerous father Bhashkor Banerjee in Shoojit Sircar's 2015 film Piku, in which Deepika Padukone played the titular role.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Big B will be seen in two much-awaited pan-India films this year. The first is Nag Ashwin's big-budget sci-fi epic Kalki 2898 AD, which also stars Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, and Kamal Haasan. The second is TJ Gnanavel's action thriller Vettaiyan, which also features Kamal Haasan, Fahadh Faasil, and Rana Daggubati.
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