Stalwarts of Indian cinema such as Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, K Balachander and Mammooty were honoured by President Pranab Mukherjee at the concluding day of four-day celebrations to mark the centenary of Indian cinema here today.
Leading the veterans was Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, herself a yesteryear actor who had acted in a number of films, with Mukherjee presenting the medal first to her amidst a thundering applause from the gathering at the packed Nehru Indoor Stadium.
Actors, directors and producers from the broad spectrum of Indian cinema from various languages were honoured on the occasion.
They include -- veteran director Balachander, recipient of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award and composer M S Viswanathan (both Tamil), Amitabh Bachchan, Javed Akhtar, Rekha, Sridevi and Randhir Raj Kapoor (Hindi), Mammootty and Mohanlal (Malayalam), Ambariesh and Paravathamma Rajkumar (Kannada), K Vishwanath (Telugu), Ramesh Deo and Seema Deo (Marathi) and noted Bengali filmmakers, Aparna Sen and Gautam Ghosh.
Preeti Saproo (Punjabi), Utham Mahanthy (Odiya) and Bhojpuri star Manoj Tewari were also honoured by Mukherjee.
Earlier, an audio-visual with narration from noted actor Madhavan was played for the audience which highlighted scenes from some of the most memorable Indian movies besides talking about the matinee idols who had a huge fan following.
A special souvenir was also released on the occasion.
