Amitabh Bachchan awarded Legion d'Honneur award

New Delhi, Jan 27 (UNI) Superstar of the millennium Amitabh Bachchan was tonight honoured with the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest civilian award, at a gliterring ceremony at the French embassy here.

At a well-attended function, French Ambassador Dominique Girard conferred the award on the legendary Hindi film actor for his contribution to Indian and international cultural life.

Present on the occasion was the entire Bachchan family along with Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai, who recently got engaged to Abhishek Bachchan.

Also gracing the ceremony were prominent personalities from Bollywood, including Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs Films distributors and Sunil Doshi of Alliance Indian.

On the occasion eminent filmmaker Luc Jacquet's thought provoking film "Penguins, A Love Story", whose English version has a voiceover by Mr Bachchan, was screened.

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, were present there.

The award is a great honour for the superstar considering that Legion d'Honneur is the highest distinction that can be conferred to a French citizen or a foreigner.

The French embassy in India had, on October 10 coinciding with Mr Bachchan's 64th birthday, announced the awarding of the honour to him.

Among the other Indian personalities to have received the honour are Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray in 1987, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in 2000 and environmentalist RK Pachauri in 2006.

UNI