Big B wears biggest French honour

MASTER'S VOICE: Amitabh speaks about a film for which he has given Hindi and English commentary.

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Keywords: French Embassy, New Delhi

New Delhi: Actor Amitabh Bachchan was on Saturday evening given the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest civilian award, for his contribution to Indian and international cultural life.

At a function at the French embassy, Ambassador Dominique Girard conferred the award on Bachchan while the actor’s family watched on. Actress Aishwarya Rai, who is engaged to the actor’s son, was present too.

Other Indians who have received the honour are late filmmaker Satyajit Ray in 1987, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in 2000 and environmentalist R K Pachauri in 2006.

The BBC in 2000 declared Bachchan, India’s most famous actor, as the ‘Star of the Millennium’ in 2000, placing him above Hollywood and European legends.

At the ceremony, filmmaker Luc Jacquet screened his film Penguins, A Love Story, for which Bachchan has given voiceover in English and Hindi.

Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs Films and Sunil Doshi of Alliance Indian were also present at the ceremony. The French embassy had announced the award on October 10 Bachchan's 64th birthday.