Veteran actress Rekha was honoured with the Yash Chopra Memorial Award on Monday evening in Mumbai for her contribution to the film industry.
The award has been instituted by the T.S.R. Foundation of T Subbarami Reddy in the memory of the producer-director, who died in 2012.
"Am honoured to be bestowed this award in Yash ji's memory. Yash ji thought me how to love & I am eternally grateful for the memories & films that I have had the privilege to be a part of.
"I can only say that this is not the climax, this is only the best phase of my life and there is a lot more to come. What I learnt from Yash ji is that if you love someone then you should love with alll your heart so that there is no scope of loving anything else," Rekha said.
The Foundation annually honours a distinguished senior film personality for outstanding contribution to film industry with a Gold Medal and a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh.
Rekha, 61, who worked with Chopra in 1981 romance "Silsila", will be given the honour on February 2 next year by the Governor of Maharashtra in a glittering ceremony in Mumbai.
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Previous recipients include Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar and megastar Amitabh Bachchan.
The Jury constituted to zero in on this year's awardee comprised of such highly-regarded names as Pamela Chopra, Simi Garewal, Boney Kapoor, Jayaprada, Pinki Reddy and Reddy himself as its Chairman and they unanimously decided that the 3rd Award should go to the actress par-excellence Padma Shri Rekha Ganeshan.
Among the celebrity guests included Ranveer Singh, David Dhawan, Poonam Dhillon, Pamela Chopra, Jaya Prada, Adnan Sami, Mohan babu, Gulshan Grover and many others.