Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee has been selected for France’s highest civilian award “Legion of Honour” for his outstanding contribution to cinema and theatre. With this, Chatterjee has become the first Bengali actor to be chosen for the award. The honour comes almost 3 decades after the same recognition was conferred on master director Satyajit Ray in 1987. Chatterjee has acted in several of Ray’s films including ‘Apur Sansar’, ‘Debi’,’ Aranyer Din Ratri’, ‘Ghare Bairey’ and ‘Ganashatru’. Earlier recipients of the Legion of Honour include sitar meastro Pandit Ravi Shankar, Amitabh Bachaan, Shahrukh Khan and Kamal Hasan. Chatterjee was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2012.
