Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar was today conferred with the first Yash Chopra Memorial Award for her contribution to cinema.
She was presented the award by Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari at a function here.
Lata, who has been unwell for the last three days, made it a point to attend the function where industrialist-politician T Subbarami Reddy, who produced Hindi films like 'Vijay', 'Chandni' and 'Lamhe', announced a national award in the memory of the legendary filmmaker.
"I am unwell since three days...I have got fever and doctors have asked me to take rest and not go out anywhere. But I wanted to come here...I have not come here for the award and Rs ten lakh. Yashji was special and close to my heart...We did not meet always but we were close as we loved each other," Lata said, adding she felt sad as she could not meet Yashji before his demise last year.
Chopra's wife Pamela was also present and became emotional while talking about her late husband.
"I am honoured and privileged to be here. She (Lata Mangeshkar) is an icon and we are happy she got the award. She is close to my husband...My family. I am grateful to her to come here for my husband despite being unwell," Pamela said.
A number of Bollywood celebrities including Sridevi, Boney Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Anil Kapoor, Jeetendra, Rani Mukherjer, Hema Malini, Akshay Kumar, Subhash Ghai, Simi Gareval, Sonali Bendre to name a few attended the event.
Lata Mangeshkar is the first recipient of the award constituted by TSR Foundation of T Subbarami Reddy.
"In our first year, we are giving this (award) to Lata Mangeshkar for her immense contribution to cinema. She was very close to Yashji and she has sung for almost all his films," said Reddy, also a Congress leader.
Yash Chopra (80) died in Mumbai on October 21 last.
