Gurgaon, Sep 26 (IANS): Veteran actress Kamini Kaushal received the Kalpana Chawla Excellence Awards for Women at its 10th annual function here Wednesday for her contribution to Indian cinema.

The 86-year-old actress was last seen in Rohit Shetty's "Chennai Express".

She started her career with Chetan Anand's "Neecha Nagar" for which she was awarded the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946.

During her time, she worked with top actors like Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar in films like "Shaheed", "Nadiya Ke Paar", "Shabnam", "Arzoo" and "Biraj Bahu".

From donning leading roles, the actress moved to character roles with "Shaheed" and was seen in many Manoj Kumar films.

She has essayed roles in almost 90 films.

The actress also steeped into the world of writing and many of her stories have been published in the children's magazine "Parag".

She acted in the TV serial "Chand Sitare" on Doordarshan. She also made an animation film "Meri Pari".

Others who received the award included junior world chess champion Tania Sachdev, innovative educationist Minoti Bahri and Kathak dancer Vidha Lal.

The award ceremony was organised by Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh Old Boys Association in memory of its alumnus, late astronaut Kalpana Chawla.

Chawla was the first Indian American astronaut and the first Indian woman in space. She was one of the seven crew members killed in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.