Bollywood director Shyam Benegal, who is known for his films like Ankur and Zubeidaa, will be honoured with the Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR) National Award for the year 2012. The director, who is originally from Hyderabad, will be given the award in the city itself, on January 27, at a function organised at the N-Convention. The ANR National award comes with a memento, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakhs.
The ANR award was instituted in 2005 by the Akkineni International Foundation with an intent to recognise the contribution of stalwarts to the Indian film industry. The first to be chosen for the ANR National Award was Dev Anand (2005), followed by Shabana Azmi in 2006, Anjali Devi in 2007, Vyjayantimala Bali in 2008, Lata Mangeshkar in 2009, K Balachander in 2010 and Hema Malini in 2011.