Shahid, Katrina to get Rajiv Gandhi National Award

By Joginder Tuteja

When they began their career with Ishq Vishk and Boom respectively, even Shahid Kapoor and Katrina Kaif wouldn't have thought that a few years down they line, they would be winning a National Award for Best Acting.

Well, this has actually turned out to be true as both the actors are the chosen ones for 12th Rajiv Gandhi National Awards. The event would be taking place at National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai, on 19th August'09.

Rajiv Gandhi Awards were initiated in 1995 in an endeavor to keep alive the vision of ex-Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. The event honours the achievers who are a part of India current progress.

Since 12 years this platform brings together various fraternities. Other winners this year are Avika Gor (Child Prodigy), Vineet Jain (Industrialist), Ramesh Chandra Agarwal (Journalism), Sam Pitroda (Global Indian), Dr. Narendra Jadhav (Educationist), Dr. G Madhavan Nair (Super Achiever), Krushnaa Patil (Women Achiever), Rajashree Birla (Social Field) and Rohit Kochhar (Young Entrepreneur).

These renowned personalities will be honoured in a grand manner amidst lot of performances & entertainment extravaganza on the eve of Shri Rajiv Gandhi' birth anniversary.

The award ceremony will be graced by dignitaries like Kamalnath, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Ashok Chavan, Murli Deora, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Maken, Rajiv Shukla, Priya Dutt, Milind Deora, Eknath Gaikwad, Sanjay Nirupam, Mohd. Azharuddin, Subodh Kant Sahay, Gurudas Kamat, Manikrao Thackray.

Rajiv Gandhi Awards has always had many Bollywood biggies as the performers in the past, including Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Navin Prabhakar, Rakhi Sawant, Vivek Oberoi, Sukhwinder Singh, Koena Mitra, Tanushree Dutta, Aftab Shivdasani, Sunidhi Chauhan, Isha Shravani, Sivamani, Tisca Chopra, Sajid Khan, Anupam Kher, Parizad Kolha, and more.

This year also, many celebrities namely Hrithik Roshan, Shreyas Talpade, Mahima Chowdhary, Esha Deol, Hussain Kuwajerwala, Priyanka Chopra, Raju Shrivastav, Vishal-Shekhar are to perform in this event.