Madhur Bhandarkar awarded with presidential honour

Renowned filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar was today awarded with the Presidential Award, Gangasharan Singh Award, by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Madhur Bhandarkar has made a special place for himself in Hindi Cinema. Madhur continues to contribute some of the most entertaining and yet relevant movies of our times. He has been awarded the most prestigious National Awards for the work he has done so far on many occasions.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, India wanted to acknowledge Madhur's contributions to Hindi language cinema under the Hindi Service Awards Scheme. Today, Madhur was awarded with the Presidential Award, Gangasharan Singh Award, by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. The award comprises of a certificate and a cheque of rupees one lakh.

28 people from different walks of life were also awarded this presidential award, for their contribution under the Hindi Service Awards Scheme, amongst who are filmmakers Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, Madhur and media person Pankaj Pachauri. This is Madhur's fourth Presidential award. In 2002 and 2005, Dr APJ Kalam gave him the presidential award for Chandni Bar and Page 3, respectively, and in 2006 Smt Patil gave him the presidential award for making Traffic Signal.

When contacted, Madhur Bhandarkar was overjoyed and said, "Over the years not just the audience or the industry but also the Government of our country has supported and acknowledged my work. I am honoured and thankful to the HRD ministry for finding me befitting for this award."