Bhopal, October 06:(Pervez Bari) The Madhya Pradesh Government has announced the Rashtriya Kishore Kumar and Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar awards for the year 2009-10. Accordingly, Rashtriya Kishore Kumar Samman will be conferred on famous film director Yash Chopra while the well known play back singer Anuradha Podwal has been selected for the Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar award.
According to Madhya Pradesh Culture Minister Laxmikant Sharma said that the jury at its meeting held recently has unanimously selected Yash Chopra and Anuradha Podwal for the awards. The jury included Vinod Tiwari, Sriram Tamrakar, Govind Namdev, Gajendra Chouhan and Vani Tripathi.
Yash Chopra of 78 years age has been a well-known film director for the last five decades. He started his film career as an assistant to his brother, late B R Chopra who was a great film director. Yash Chopra worked independently as film director and produced several successful films like ‘Dhool Ka Phool’, ‘Dharamputra’, ‘Waqt’, ‘Deewar’, ‘Kabhi-Kabhi’, ‘Trishul’, ‘Silsila’, ‘Kala Pathar’, ‘Chandni’, ‘Lamhe’, ‘Dil to Pagal Hain’, ‘Veer Zara’ etc. Chopra has already been honoured with several awards including ‘Dada Saheb Phalke Puraskar’.
Laxmikant Sharma said the selection committee also decided unanimously to give Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar Samman to Anuradha Podwal. The jury included Jaiprakash Chouksey, Atul Tiwari, Dr. Achla Naagar and Ms Vani Tripathi. The jury recommended unanimously the name of Anuradha Podwal for this Samman for her prolong and continuous contribution to Indian classical and devotional songs.
Anuradha Podwal, has been active in the field of play back singing for several Hindi feature films since last four decades. She started her career as a play back singer for the film Abhiman by late Rishikesh Mukherjee. Podwal has sung numerous songs for feature films and some of these prominent films are ‘Sajan Bina Suhagan’, ‘Utsav’, ‘Woh Saat Din’, ‘Tezab’, ‘Dil’, ‘Ashiqi’, ‘Dil Hain Ki Manta Nahin’, ‘Man’, ‘Dil Kya Karen’, ‘Major Saab’, ‘Sahiba’, ‘Beta’, ‘Sadak’, ‘Sajan’, etc. She had sung songs with top singers and under the composition of famous music directors. Podwal was also well known in the field of Bhajan Sangeet.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will present the Rashtriya Kishore Kumar Samman to Yash Chopra on October 13, 2010 at a glittering function to be organised at Khandwa. Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar Samman presentation ceremony will be organised in the month of December this year at Indore. On this occasion, Rashtriya Lata Mangeshkar Samman for the year 2008-09 will also be presented to famous music director Ravi. The Sammans (awards) carry Rs. 2 lakh in cash and a citation each. (pervezbari@eth.net)