Filmmaker Tapan Sinha to get lifetime achievement award

New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) Bengali filmmaker Tapan Sinha would be presented with 'One Time Award for Lifetime Achievement' Friday in Kolkata. The award would be presented to him earlier than scheduled in view of his poor health.

The union government had decided that these awards would be given to four eminent film personalities Dilip Kumar, Saroja Devi and melody queen Lata Mangeshkar apart from Sinha to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of India's Independence, a press release said.

But, keeping in mind Sinha's present health, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, West Bengal governor, will confer upon him the award June 20 at his residence in Kolkata.

Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, union minister for information and broadcasting, would be present.

Sinha is being awarded for his down-to-earth cinematic depiction of the struggles of the common man.

His films such as 'Kabuliwala' (1957), 'Haatey Bazaare' (1967), and 'Safed Haathi'(1977) exhibited his virtuosity and capability to handle a range of subjects sensitively.

He has won 19 National Film Awards in various categories apart from laurels in international film festivals like those in Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco and Locarno.