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France to honour Lata Mangeshkar
14th Nov 2006 09.16 IST
By Agencies

Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar will be honoured with the top French award Knight of the Legion of Honour in Mumbai next month for her contribution to cinema.

Ambassador of France to India Dominique Girard will personally confer the honour on Mangeshkar at a function in Mumbai in December, French embassy officials said in New Delhi on Monday.

"It is a huge honour for me that the French government is honouring me in this manner. I was told that it is equivalent to India's Bharat Ratna," Mangeshkar said in Mumbai.

"I have got so many awards and honours but each one is special to me, specially because great artists like Satyajit Ray have received this before," Mangeshkar added.

Embassy officials said the award for Mangeshkar was announced two years ago but the conferment was delayed due to lack of suitable dates.

"This was in the pipeline for some time now and they had contacted me some time ago. But they could not find an appropriate time for the ceremony and the matter was stalled. Then they contacted me again some days ago, saying the ceremony would be held in mid-December," Mangeshkar said.

The award, instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is traditionally conferred only by a winner of the same honour. Girard is a recipient of the award.

Last month mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan had been named as a winner of the award.

Bachchan will receive the award in January next year at the French Embassy in New Delhi. The Hindi version of Oscar-winning animation film -- March of the Penguins -- to which the superstar has lent his voice will be screened on the occasion.

The late film maestro Satyajit Ray is the only recipient of the highest award in the Legion of Honour category.

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