[2] The award comprises a Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion, a shawl, and a cash prize of ₹1,000,000 (US$12,000).

[3] Presented first in 1969, the award was introduced by the Government of India to commemorate Dadasaheb Phalke's contribution to Indian cinema.

[6][7][a] Recipients include several pairs of siblings received this award in different years, for example: B. N. Reddy (1974) and B. Nagi Reddy (1986);[10] Raj Kapoor (1987) and Shashi Kapoor (2014);[11] Lata Mangeshkar (1989) and Asha Bhosle (2000);[12] B. R. Chopra (1998) and Yash Chopra (2001).

Several other awards and film festivals have been named after Dadasaheb Phalke, sometimes leading to confusion.

Some prominent filmmakers, such as Shyam Benegal, have proposed that the Government of India step in to prevent such use of the Dadasaheb Phalke name but the Information and Broadcasting ministry has said that it could not do so since the names of the new awards are not an exact copy.