Amitabh Bachchan to receive Legion d'Honneur award ...

Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi,

(IANS) The French embassy will honour Saturday legendary Hindi film

actor Amitabh Bachchan with the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest

civilian award, for his contribution to Indian and international

cultural life.

French Ambassador Dominique Girard will confer the award on Bachchan

at a special function at the embassy. Apparently, the entire Bachchan

clan is expected to grace the occasion. Aishwarya Rai, who just got

engaged to the actor's son, Abhishek, is also likely to be seen at the

award ceremony.

Eminent filmmaker Luc Jacquet's thought provoking film "Penguins, A

Love Story" will be screened on the occasion.

Actress Romane Bohringer, who did the voice over for the French

portion of the film, Christophe Lioud and Yves Darondeau, founders and

managers of production company Bonne Pioche, will be present there.

Other well-known personalities from Bollywood, the Mumbai-based

Hindi film industry, to attend the function will be Manmohan Shetty of

Adlabs Films distributors and Sunil Doshi of Alliance Indian. Both

Shetty and Doshi are the rights holders of the film.

The French embassy in India had made the announcement Oct 10 last

year, which coincided with Bachchan's 64th birthday.

Created to reward eminent military and civil merits in the service

of France, Legion d'Honneur is the highest distinction that can be

conferred to a French citizen or a foreigner.

Among the eminent Indian personalities to have received the honour

are Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray in 1987, sitar maestro Ravi

Shankar in 2000 and environmentalist R.K. Pachauri in 2006.

Bachchan, an icon in India, is well known in many countries around

the world. The BBC Online voted him as the 'Star of the millennium'

above Hollywood greats like Sir Lawrence Olivier and Charlie

Chaplin.

The actor, popularly known as Big B, has dominated Indian cinema

since he quit his job as a freight broker in Calcutta and joined

Bollywood more than three decades ago.