Life Time achievement awards conferred on four film personalities

To commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Indias Independence, the Government of India has decided to confer the One Time Award for Life Time Achievement to four eminent film personalities - Dilip Kumar, Tapan Sinha, Lata Mangeshkar and Saroja Devi.

New Delhi, June 19 : To commemorate the 60th Anniversary of India's Independence, the Government of India has decided to confer the " One Time Award for Life Time Achievement " to four eminent film personalities - Dilip Kumar, Tapan Sinha, Lata Mangeshkar and Saroja Devi.

Tapan Sinha, one of the all-time celluloid greats, would be presented the award in the field of film direction. In view of his failing health, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the Governor of West Bengal will confer the Award on Sinha on June 20 at his residence in Kolkata. This will be done in the presence of P. R. Dasmunsi, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

A storyteller par excellence, Sinha's films such as Kabuliwala (1957), Haatey Bazaare (1967), Safed Haathi (1977) are well crafted in terms of structure and technique, exhibiting his virtuosity and capability to handle a range of subjects with equal �lan and sensitivity.

Sinha's works have 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. He began his film career as a sound engineer in Kolkata's New Theatres in 1946.

In 1950 he got the opportunity of working at Pinewood Studios in the UK where he spent two years. On returning to India, he turned his attention to film directing, making films in Bengali, Hindi and also Oriya.

He made three films based on Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore's works: Kabuliwala, Khudito Pashan and Atithi. Shri Sinha's cinematic landscape traverses a journey that began with Ankush (1954) and highlighted by Upahar (1955), Tonsil (1956), Louhakapat (1957), Kalomati (1957), Hansuli Banker Upakatha (1962), Sagina Mahato (1970), Banchharamer bagan (1980), Adalat O Ekti Meye (1982) Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1991) and Shatabdir Kanya (2001).

ANI