NEW DELHI: Legendary cinematographer V K Murthy, the cinematographer of all of Guru Dutt's films, will receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2008 for outstanding contribution to films.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs one million, a Swarna Kamal and a shawl.

Murthy would be the 56th recipient of the award that will be presented to him along with the awards for the best films for 2008 by President Pratibha Patil.

This is the first time ever in the history of the Dadasaheb Phalke awards that a cinematographer has been chosen to receive the nation's highest award in cinema.

Interestingly, the father of Indian cinema Dadasaheb Phalke after whom the award is named, was himself a cinematographer besides being producer, director and actor.

Murthy has provided some of Indian Cinema's most breathtaking visual moments. He broke new grounds, ushered in modern and highly sophisticated techniques, and brought in rich visual artistry into Indian cinema.

Murthy shot India's first cinemascope movie Kagaz Ke Phool and is also one of the pioneers of colour cinematography. His picturisation of the title song of Chaudavin ka Chand mesmerised the audience.

Classics like Kagaz Ke Phool and Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam won him Filmfare Awards.

Born in 1923 in Mysore, Murthy earned his Diploma in Cinematography from SJ Polytechnic, Bangalore in its very first batch 1943-46. As a student, he also took part in India's freedom struggle and was jailed in 1943 and is a recipient of freedom fighter's pension. Having spent nearly five decades in Mumbai, the ace cinematographer is now based in Bangalore.

He was a recipient of the IIFA Lifetime Achievement Award at Amsterdam in 2005.