Phalke Legend Actor Award

Rajesh Khanna was hailed as "King of Emotion" and this king made the atmosphere very emotional when he addressed the audience while receiving "Phalke Legend Actor Award" from chief guest Shri A. Ramesh Prasad (M.D.-Prasad Group of Companies). "Whatever I am today is because of film industry. The industry made me star and then super star. I am thankful to every one from my producers to spot boys with whom I shared forty two years of my life.After the journey of these long years now the moment has come where I am being felicitated by my own people.G P Sippy gave me a break in 'Raaz' and Shakti Samanta made me star and the love of audience made me super star. I really have no words to thank for the love I received," Kaka said emotionally, and further said, "I am really proud to be the part of this industry which represents the true picture of communal harmony. I fully agree with this that there is no business like show business" Kaka also confessed that he made many mistakes in life and there was a pin drop silence when he said "mujh mein bhi kuchh kamjoriyaan hai aur in kamjoriyon ke chalte mujhse bhi kai galatiyaan hui hai".

The super star spoke at length and his speech was laced with couplets of Sahir Ludhianvi and shairi too. Every year on the birth anniversary of the father of the indian film industry Dadasaheb Phalke i.e.30th April, Dadasaheb Phalke Academy organises an event where legends to labours are felicitated for their valuable contribution to the film industry. This year on 139th birth anniversary of Dadasaheb the veteran producer-director Dr. B R Chopra was conferred on Phalke Ratna award.His grand son Kapil received the award on his behalf. Veteran director Ravi Tandon was also honoured with trophy and and it was indeed a special moment as Ravi Tandon alongwith his daughter Raveena Tandon and grand daughter shared the dias. Singer Mahendra Kapoor, actresses Shayama and Sitaradevi, lyricist Verma Malik, editor V K Nayak, distributor Ramesh Sippy,exporter and distributor Sunder Rai. Art director R Verman,music director Jagdish Khebudkar, film journalist M S M Desai, Hosi Wadia of Bombay Lab and many prominent distributors and exhibitors of all over India were also felicitated. The Acadamy also felicitated veterans like dance director Baba Harman, cameraman Shyamrao Shiposkar, makeup man Ram Dada, dressman Pyarejan Sheikh Jalal, hair dresser Vimla Saliyan, sound engineer S W Deshpande, stuntman Shaikh Naseer Burhan, singer Kalyani Mitra and many other technicians. The trophies were presented by Rajesh Khanna, chief guest A.Ramesh Prasad, Bhojpuri super star Manoj Tiwari Mridul, Santosh Singh Jain and Dharmesh Tiwari.

- (SAMPURN)