Lifetime Achievement Awards for Scorsese, Szabo; IFFI to honour Hema, Prasoon too

Two masters of cinema, Hollywood producer-director Martin Scorsese and Hungary's best-known filmmaker Istvan Szabo, will be honoured with the first Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which opens in Panjim on Friday, November 20.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was renamed after Satyajit Ray in honour of the late maestro whose birth centenary is being observed this year.

Announcing the names, Festival Director Chaitanya Prasad said Scorsese and Szabo will not be able to attend the festival physically, "but their video messages conveying acceptance of the award will be played".

Prasad also announced the actress and MP from Mathura, Hema Malini, and the lyricist and Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Prasoon Joshi, will each get the Personality of the Year 2021 award.

He added that the festival will also pay homage to the late Kannada movie star, Puneeth Rajkumar, who was just recently honoured posthumously with the Karnataka Ratna by the state's chief minister.

This homage will be in addition to the special tribute being planned for Sean Connery, the Scotsman who first played James Bond.

Stating that the 52nd IFFI will open with a star-studded inaugural ceremony, where Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh and Shraddha Kapoor, among others, will grace the stage, the festival director informed the media that Karan Johar and Manish Paul would host the event.