The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is a yearly award given by the Indian government to honour lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. It was introduced in the year 1969 to mark the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, who is regarded as the father of Indian cinema. The award for a particular year is given during the end of the following year along with the National Film Awards.

So far, the names of the awardees are as follows:
Devika Rani (actress from Andhra Pradesh) in 1969,
B. N. Sircar (producer from West Bengal) in 1970,
Prithviraj Kapoor (actor from Punjab) in 1971,
Pankaj Mullick (composer from West Bengal) in 1972,
Ruby Myers (Actress from Maharashtra) in 1973,
B. N. Reddy (director from Andhra Pradesh) in 1974,
Dhirendranath Ganguly (actor and director from West Bengal) in 1975,
Kanan Devi (actress from West Bengal) in 1976,
Nitin Bose (cinematographer, director and writer, from West Bengal) in 1977,
Boral (composer and director from West Bengal) in 1978,
Sohrab Modi (actor, director and producer from Maharashtra) in 1979,
P. Jairaj (actor and director) in 1980, Naushad Ali (music director) in 1981,
L. V. Prasad (actor, director and producer from Andhra Pradesh) in 1982,
Durga Khote (actress from Maharashtra) in 1983,
Satyajit Ray (director from West Bengal) in 1984,
V. Shantaram (actor, director and producer from Maharastra) in 1985,
B. Nagi Reddy (producer from Andhra Pradesh) in 1986,
Raj Kapoor (actor and director) in 1987,
Ashok Kumar (actor from West Bengal) in 1988,
Lata Mangeshkar (singer from Maharashtra) in 1989,
A. Nageswara Rao (actor from Andhra Pradesh) in 1990,
Bhalji Pendharkar (director, producer and writer from Maharashtra) in 1991,
Bhupen Hazarika (composer from Assam) in 1992,
Majrooh Sultanpuri (lyricist) in 1993,
Dilip Kumar (actor) in 1994,
Dr. Rajkumar (actor from Karnataka) in 1995,
Sivaji Ganesan (actor from Tamil Nadu) in 1996,
Pradeep (lyricist) in 1997,
B.R. Chopra (director and producer) in 1998,
Hrishikesh Mukherjee (director from West Bengal) in 1999,
Asha Bhosle (singer from Maharashtra) in 2000,
Yash Chopra (director and producer from Punjab) in 2001,
Dev Anand (actor, director and producer from Punjab) in 2002,
Mrinal Sen (director from West Bengal) in 2003,
Adoor Gopalakrishnan (director from Kerala) in 2004
Shyam Benegal (director from Andhra Pradesh) in 2005.