Lighthouses of Hope, Vision & Resilience Award for Taapsee Pannu and several others
Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu and several international luminaries were commended as lighthouses of hope, vision and resilience during the gloomy world atmosphere of pandemic-hit 2020.These honours occurred at the 36th-Anniversary Global Awards for the Priyadarshni Academy on Saturday, September 19 through a YouTube live event broadcast from Mumbai. 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.
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.
“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”, she said, as she accepted the award virtually from former union minister and India’s Sherpa to G20, Suresh Prabhu,
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.
Established in 1984, the Priyadarshni Academy aims to serve the society by nurturing access to education for deserving students and providing opportunities for classical musicians and dancers. Its global awards are also called the Nobel Awards for Asia. This year, the Academy was represented on the dais by Dr Niranjan Hiranandani, Chairman of the Priyadarshni Academy, Dr R A Mashelkar, Chairman of the Global Awards Advisory Committee and Nanik Rupani and Ashish Vaid.
