Ben Kingsley to receive Asian Fellowship Award

British actor Ben Kingsley, best known for his Oscar-winning portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's 1982 biopic "Gandhi", will be honoured with a Fellowship Award at the annual Asian Awards here today.
"Ben Kingsley is without a doubt one of the most accomplished actors of Asian descent and we are incredibly proud and excited to celebrate the remarkable career of such an outstanding individual," said Paul Sagoo, founder of the awards, which will be hosted at Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane by London 2012 Olympic mastermind Lord Sebastian Coe KBE.
The 69-year-old actor was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji to an English mother and Gujarati doctor father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji.

He changed his name early in his career after gaining recognition as a stage actor. In 1984, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The actor was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, something he recently described as a "healing of wounds" left by a difficult childhood.
"My mother, far from being proud, was very jealous of my success. Any kind of embrace (from my parents) was totally absent from my life so to be embraced by Her Majesty...
"I felt like stopping people in the street, saying my mum loves me, you know. Because that's what it felt like, to me. The filling of a vacuum in the universe," he had said.

Kingsley is currently shooting for Hollywood blockbuster "Iron Man 3" and will fly to London to collect his latest award, which puts him in league with the late Pandit Ravi Shankar.