The Madhya Pradesh government will be felicitating veteran Manoj Kumar with the prestigious Kishore Kumar award

Veteran actor and director Manoj Kumar will be conferred the Kishore Kumar Award by the Madhya Pradesh Government for his contribution to cinema for the year 2008-2009. The date for giving away the awards are yet to be finalised.

“The Kishore Kumar award is being conferred upon veteran actor Manoj Kumar this year,” said the Madhya Pradesh Minister of Culture, Lakshmikant Sharma.

Noted actor, director, producer, lyricist and script writer Manoj Kumar possessed a multi-dimensional personality and made movies based on moral values and patriotism. They include Shaheed, Upkar, Purab Aur Pashchim, Yadgar, Shor, Roti Kapda aur Makan and Kranti in which he has carried out many responsibilities including script writing, lyrics composition, direction and acting.”

Besides, Manoj Kumar Besides, the MP Government would also confer the Lata Mangeshkar Award for playback singing to Nitin Mukesh while the Iqbal Samman would be awarded to noted Urdu writer Iqbal Majid.

“Nitin Mukesh sang his first film song in the film Dhuwen Ki Lakeer in 1974 which was a duet with Vani Jayaram and later in several film including Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Noori, Trishul, Chandni, Kranti, Nakhuda, Khudgharz and Tezaab. He has also been an assistant of film director and producer late Hrishikesh Mukherjee in many films,” he added.

Urdu litterateur Iqbal Majid, who has been selected for Iqbal Samman, has been active in the field of writing since 1956. Several collections of his short stories have been published. Majid has presented the Hindi version of Dostoevsky’s famous novel Crime and Punishment.

Violinist Kala Ramnath, who has been named for the National Kumar Gandharv Award, got her early training in violin playing from T N Krishnan and N Rajan. She had performed as violinist at various prestigious events in India and abroad. She has also received the Surmani, Sur Ratna and Pandit Jasraj Gaurav awards.