Mumbai, Nov 17 (IANS): Veteran actress Waheeda Rehman will receive the inaugural Centenary Award for the Indian Film Personality of the Year, a special honour to commemorate the 100 years of Indian cinema.
The 77-year-old actress will receive the honour at the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), starting in Goa Nov 20. The information and broadcasting ministry has set up the award.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari took to his Twitter handle 'ManishTewari' to share the news and he even congratulated the actress.
"Congratulations to Waheeda Rehmanji for being conferred the inaugural Centenary Award for the Indian Film Personality of the Year-2013," he tweeted.
"Award has been instituted to mark 100 years of Indian Cinema. It would be an annual feature. It consists of cash component of Ra.10 lakh and a citation," the minister wrote.
The actress started her film career in 1955 with Telugu film "Jayasimha" and a year later she made her debut in the Hindi film industry with "C.I.D." and there was no looking back for her since then.
In a career spaning over five decades, she has appeared in over 70 films with some hits like "Guide", "Pyaasa", "Man Mandir", "Kaagaz Ke Phool", "Teesri Kasam", " Ram Aur Shyam", "Reshma Aur Shera" and "Neel Kamal".
In recent times, Waheeda featured in 2006 superhit movie "Rang De Basanti".
Winner of several awards, she was also conferred with Padma Shri in 1972 and Padma Bhushan in 2011.