Vidya Balan will be honoured with the Smita Patil Memorial Award in a ceremony to be held at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai on 19^th September for her "outstanding" contribution to the Film Industry. 

 

Priyadarshini Academy chairman Nanik Rupani said, "Vidya Balan is an excellent actress. She is modern yet contemporary and has done decent and powerful roles. Her performance in “Paa” was outstanding. Our jury has chosen her for the Smita Patil Award for her outstanding contribution to the film industry."

 

Priyadarshini Academy is an NGO which is engaged in socio-cultural and educational activities and has been holding the biennial award function since its inception in 1984.

 

The list of actors and filmmakers bestowed with the award earlier include Preity Zinta, Yash Chopra, Karisma Kapoor, Urmila Matondkar, Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit and Kareena Kapoor.

 

Vidya Balan made her debut with Pradeep Sarkar's "Parineeta" in 2005 and later on went to give some outstanding performances in "Lage Raho Munnabhai", "Bhool Bhulaiyaa", "Paa" and "Ishqiya".