Veterans Asha Parekh and Farooq Shaikh are set to be honoured by the Bimal Roy Memorial and Film Society to commemorate the 52nd death anniversary of the renowned filmmaker. The organisation was instituted 22 years ago in memory of the late filmmaker. Its aim is to reward unsung heroes of the film industry. A special function will be held on January 8.
Talking about Shaikh, who passed away in 2013, Roy's daughter Rinki Roy Bhattacharya said they wanted to honour the late actor as he never won an award, barring one National Award trophy. "We have selected Farooque Shaikh for this distinction because he was a distinguished artiste who truly deserves it (honour). He never received an award. All he received was one national award for supporting actor for the film Lahore," Bhattacharya said in a statement here.
Shaikh's daughter Shaaista will receive the award on his behalf. Awards will also be presented to directors Ananth Mahadevan and Amit Rai along with actors Paresh Rawal and Jackie Shroff for making socially relevant films. Veteran artistes Sulochana Latkar, Kamini Kaushal and Farida Jalal will attend the function.
The memorial society is preserving and restoring Roy's film library along with other personal memorabilia such as song books, posters, stills, costumes, screenplays with the help of experts. It also honours senior technicians, performing artists, along with contemporary filmmakers making innovative, particularly socially relevant works.
The organisation supports promising film studies students with seed grants and has been acquiring Roy's film prints, negatives, other material for preservation.
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