 Narayan won numerous awards during the course of his literary career . His first major award was in 1958 , the Sahitya Akademi Award for The Guide . When the book was made into a film , he received the Filmfare Award for the best story . In 1964 , he received the Padma Bhushan during the Republic Day honours . In 1980 , he was awarded the AC Benson Medal by the ( British ) Royal Society of Literature , of which he was an honorary member . In 1982 he was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters . He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature multiple times , but never won the honour . 
