Clad in his trademark white kurta pyjama, Gulzar turned towards the audience to take a bow before he approached the stage to receive the Swarna Kamal, Rs.1 million and a shawl, conferred upon him by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Vigyan Bhavan here. The multi-faceted yet humble talent, who started his career in 1956, is the 45th winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which is constituted in the name of Dadasaheb Phalke - the director of India's first full-length feature film "Raja Harishchandra", made in 1913. Gulzar took to the mike, requesting "a moment to get his breath" as he was overwhelmed with the love and appreciation of his work as a lyricist, director, screen-writer, producer and poet.
"There are few moments in life when for a writer, whose work is to play with words, doesn't know what words to choose to express gratitude and thank people. I want to say that no person will reach this stage without the support of several people. "I was lucky that when I started, I met many people from whom I learnt - my guru Bimal Roy, who picked me from nowhere and took me along with him...there was Salil Chowdhary, Sachin Dev Burman, Hemant Kumar...I was lucky to get such gurus," Gulzar said in his acceptance speech. Clad in his trademark white kurta pyjama, Gulzar turned towards the audience to take a bow before he approached the stage to receive the Swarna Kamal, Rs.1 million and a shawl, conferred upon him by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Vigyan Bhavan here.
The multi-faceted yet humble talent, who started his career in 1956, is the 45th winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, which is constituted in the name of Dadasaheb Phalke - the director of India's first full-length feature film "Raja Harishchandra", made in 1913. Gulzar took to the mike, requesting "a moment to get his breath" as he was overwhelmed with the love and appreciation of his work as a lyricist, director, screen-writer, producer and poet."There are few moments in life when for a writer, whose work is to play with words, doesn't know what words to choose to express gratitude and thank people. I want to say that no person will reach this stage without the support of several people."I was lucky that when I started, I met many people from whom I learnt - my guru Bimal Roy, who picked me from nowhere and took me along with him...there was Salil Chowdhary, Sachin Dev Burman, Hemant Kumar. I was lucky to get such gurus," Gulzar said in his acceptance speech.
