Veteran actor Hema Malini was honoured with the Indian Film Personality of the Year 2021 Award at the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India. The festival started in Goa on Saturday – it will be held from November 20 to November 28.
The opening ceremony took place at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Panaji, Goa. Lyricist Prasoon Joshi, the CBFC Chairman, will also be presented with the Indian Film Personality of the Year Award on the closing day of the festival.
According to Thakur, Hema Malini and Prasoon Joshi’s contribution “to the field of Indian cinema spread over decades and their body of work has enthralled audiences across generations.”
While talking to ANI, the veteran said, “It’s a fruit of my labour over the years. As an MP also, I do various works of Mathura. So that also creates an impact on the audience as earlier I was a dancer, film artist, and now an MP.
The opening ceremony of the film festival was also attended by filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Salman Khan. A video shared by the Press Information Bureau on Twitter shows Karan, who is co-hosting, asking Union Minister Anurag Singh Thakur to recall his favourite film dialogue.
He makes a reference to Shah Rukh Khan’s 2007 film Chak De! India and says: “Mujhe states ke naam na sunai dete hai na dikhai dete hai… sirf ek mulk ka naam sunai deta hai India (I can’t hear names of individual states, I can only hear the name of one country – India.)”
The film festival is being co-conducted by the Directorate of Film Festivals (under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) and the Entertainment Society of Goa, Government of Goa.
