Shyam Benegal honoured with Akkineni Nageswara Rao National Award

Veteran filmmaker, Padma Bhushan Dr. Shyam Benegal, who has made films likeZubeidaaandWell Done Abba, has been awarded with the esteemed Akkineni Nageswara Rao National Award for the year of 2012 at N Convention Center in Hyderabad. Union minister of state for information and broadcasting, Manish Tewari, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and MP T Subbarami Reddy were the chief guests at the event which was also attended by Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna, Amala, K. Viswanath, Padma Bhushan Dr. D Rama Naidu, Akkineni Venkat, Nagachaitanya and other members of Akkineni family.

The Dada Saheb Phalke Awardee director, Shyam Benegal addressed the audience after receiving the prestigious award, "Today the most number of films in India are being made in Telugu only. Hyderabad has become the capital city of Indian cinema. I have been a native of Hyderabad. When I had decided to enter film industry, no one supported me. It was ANR, who had been instrumental in bringing Telugu film industry from Chennai to Hyderabad. He loves his studio so much. I have seen him so many times working himself in the studio. I remember asking ANR to rent a big crane for my movie Nishaanth in Annapurna studios. I have been very grateful at receiving this award from such a big personality".

On this special occasion, Akkineni Nageswara Rao said,"I have been very grateful to the industry, which have been genial towards me for the last 75 years. It was when I was receiving the 'Dada sahib phalke' award in 1991, I have decided to initiate an award to honour famous film personalities. After the amount had been funded, we have started this award. T.Subbirami Reddy, Ramanaidu and Boni kapoor have been the chief members in this award. I have been very happy to give this award to Shyam Benegal, who has contributed a lot to Indian cinema".