Taapsee Pannu and several international luminaries were commended as lighthouses of hope, vision and resilience during the gloomy world atmosphere of pandemic-hit 2020. They were honoured at the 36th-Anniversary Global Awards for the Priyadarshni Academy on Saturday, September 19 through a YouTube live event broadcast from Mumbai.
Awarded the Smita Patil Memorial Award, Taapsee Pannu was recognised for her commendable acting skills in a body of films like Saand Ki Aankh, Thappad, Mulk, Pink, Manmarziyan, Naam Shabana and Badla. The actor had established herself in Tamil and Telugu cinema before she turned her sights towards the Hindi film industry.
“Thank you so much for considering me worthy of this honour. I’ve realised the depth of this compliment and the responsibility of being given her name fairly late in life (as I come from a non-film, purely educational background). It’s almost surreal… I don’t think I’m anywhere near her as of now, but I would off-course, like to keep her as my benchmark and make sure that I reach somewhere close”, Taapsee said, as she accepted the award virtually from Suresh Prabhu, former union minister and India’s Sherpa to G20.
The Priyadarshni Academy is a socio-cultural organisation, which hosts these awards to honour luminaries in multiple disciplines every year. This time, they decided to continue in the same vein to serve as a symbol of resilience in the glum atmosphere.
“This is exactly the time to celebrate the iconic, extraordinary individuals who’ve demonstrated vision, action and resilience and like lighthouses in turbulent times, have shown us the way. We need their inspiration more now than ever before. That’s why we’re here, this evening”, said Dr RA Mashelkar, Chairman of the Global Awards Advisory Committee for the Priyadarshni Academy.
Apart from Pannu, the Academy also honoured Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Jose Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director of HUL, Graça Machel DBE HonFBA, who served as the First Lady for both Mozambique and South Africa and Kamlesh Patel (Daaji), President of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission.
