100 Years of Indian Cinema Closing Ceremony: President Honours Film Legends; Rajinikanth, Kamal, Vijay, Ajith Attend

The closing ceremony of Indian cinema's centenary celebrations was a grand affair with the presence of industry big wigs and political leaders.

President Pranab Mukherjee was the chief guest of honour on the final day of the event. Tamil Nadu Governor Konijeti Rosaiah, Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Karnataka Minister for Infrastructure Development and Information Santosh Lad and other dignitaries graced the occasion.

Some of the prominent members of Indian cinema including Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vaijayanthi Mala, Mohanlal, Venkatesh, Sivakumar, Karthi, Vijay, Ajith, Sridevi, Boney Kapoor, Sarath Kumar and Mammooty among othere were also present at the event. [To look at the pictures, click here]

The president felicitated as many as 41 legends of Indian cinema at the centenary celebrations. He presented medallions to awardees for their contribution to cinema. The artists, chosen from 12 film industries including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Odiya, Assamese and Bhojpuri, were honoured.

The first recipient of the award was Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa, who was once a top actress in the Tamil film industry. Other recipients from Tamil cinema including director Balanchander, music composer MS Vishwanathan, AVM Saravanan and Vyjyanthimala were given the medallions.

From the Telugu film industry, veterans Anjali Devi, K. Vishwanath, K Raghavendra Rao, Lakshmi Naryana Sattiraju were honoured.

From the Malayalam industry, veteran Madhu, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mammooty, Mohanalal and Kunchako Gopal were felicitated.

The awardees from the Kannada film industry are Ambareesh, BS Dwarakesh, Ravichandran, Veeranna, Bharati Vishnuvardhan and Parvathamma Rajkumar.

Talented Bollywood artistes including Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi, Rekha, Ramesh Sippy, Randhir Kapoor and Javed Akhtar among others received the awards.

Amitabh posted a message on his Twitter saying, "Thank you SIFCC and the CM of T'Nadu, for giving us this honour respect and dignity by the hands of the President of India, no less."

Apart from celebrities of the aforementioned industries, artistes from Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Marathi and Odiya film industries also received awards.

Speaking at the valedictory function of the four-day event, President Pranab Mukherjee was quoted as saying by Indo-Asian News Service, "Indian cinema is incomplete without the contribution of south Indian cinema. The achievement of the south film industry at the National Film Awards over the years is proof of the development of the industry."

He also urged that the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and Satyajit Ray Film and Technical Institute, Kolkata, should be given "national importance" status as some of the best talents from the industry are from these institutes.

During the special occasion, an audio-visual cassette was released to mark India cinema's 100-year journey. Governor Rosaiah released a souvenir commemorating the centenary celebrations and gave the first copy to the president.

A cultural event was organised post the closing ceremony. South cine stars wowed the audiences with their scintillating performances.