MUMBAI: The recipient of the 28th Smita Patil Memorial Award for excellence in cinema will be Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone. This biennial award was instituted by Priyadarshni Academy to recognise an actress’ contribution to the film industry.

Set up in 1985, Priyadarshni Academy is a non-profit, socio-cultural and educational organisation established by Founder Chairman, Mr. Nanik Rupani. The awards function is conducted with the aim to put India on the global map. Daughter of badminton player Prakash Padukone, Deepika made her Bollywood debut with ‘Om Shanti Om’ in 2007 and her most recent success is ‘Cocktail’ with Saif Ali Khan.

Before Deepika, icons like Sridevi, Dimple Kapadia, Pooja Bhatt, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Manisha Koirala, Madhuri Dixit, Tabu, Aishwarya Rai, Karisma Kapoor, Urmila Matondkar, Kareena Kapoor, Preity Zinta and Vidya Balan have been the recipients of this award. The awards will be presented on September 18 by the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil and state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anil Deshmukh.