Jagjit Singh awarded

Sunday, November 26, 2006
Filmmaker Karan Johar, multiple Commonwealth gold-winning shooter Samaresh Jung and ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh were amongst those awarded this year's Teacher's Achievement Awards.

Entrepreneur Harsh Mariwala and adman Prasoon Joshi were also recipients of the award at a well-attended ceremony held Saturday night at The Grand Hotel here.

Actors Ally Khan and Simone Singh anchored the nearly-three-hour-show that also saw performances by percussionist Taufiq Qureishi and a performance by actress Isha Sharvani of 'Kisna' fame.

There was a live chat where talk show host Pooja Bedi interviewed nominees Johar, Joshi and actor Boman Irani. There was also a poetry-violin jugalbandi by actor Farooque Shaikh and artists Ganesh and Kumaresh.

There were 22 nominees in the four award categories - entertainment, sports, business and communication.

Accepting the Lifetime Award, Jagjit said: 'A lifetime award is given to a person who has retired but I assure you that I will go on with my singing and try to achieve those aspects which I haven't.'

In the entertainment section, the nominees included filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor, sitar player Anoushka Shankar and singer Sunidhi Chauhan. In the sports category, Jung competed with the likes of Badminton player Aparna Popat, shooters Abhinav Bindra and Anuja Jung, squash player Ritwik Bhattacharya and golfer Shiv Kapur.

Joshi who won in the communications category has to his credit ads like 'Paanch matlab chota Coke', 'Dubara mat puchna' of Chlormint and Happydent.

Mariwala was honoured in the business section for transforming Marico Industries Ltd from a traditional commodity-driven company to one of India's leading branded FMCG conglomerates.

Instituted in 2001, past winners of the awards include Kukunoor, Mahesh Bhupathi, Yash Chopra, Sonu Nigam and Karan Thapar.