The 52-year-old actress, who has worked in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films, made her Bollywood debut as a child artist with the 1975 movie "Julie".
In her career spanning over 40 years, the actress has given various memorable performances in film like "Sadma," "Mr India", "Lamhe", "Chandni", "Chaalbaaz", "Khuda Gawah" and "English Vinglish".
Stalwarts of Indian cinema like VK Murthy, Rekha, and Yash Johar have previously been recipients of this award.
The award will be presented to the actress at the main ceremony, held during the four-day long 'IIFA Weekend' from June 23-26 2016 in Madrid, Spain.