Bollywood divas Madhuri, Sushmita honoured for excellence

Gurgaon: Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit and former beauty queen and actress Sushmita Sen were honoured for individual excellence in the field of acting and entrepreneurship respectively here Monday night.

While Sushmita was honoured with woman entrepreneur award for successfully running her organisation --I AM SHE, Madhuri was conferred with platinum diva award, at Planman Media`s Powerbrands Hall of Fame awards held at Kingdom of Dreams. "I am very proud and honoured after receiving the award. It reiterates the fact that people still look at me with integrity. I have come here with a lot of hard work," said Madhuri, who was accompanied by husband Sriram Nene, after receiving the award. While thanking for the honour, Sushmita said: "It has been a journey for me. I won Miss Universe in 1994, got to do my first film `Dastak` in 1996 and now I receive this woman entrepreneur award for I AM SHE, which I opened two years ago." Sen said she opened it with the idea of making "our Indian beauties capable enough to win international titles. All you people have been a source of great strength". Actors Parineeti Chopra and Prateik also received the awards for rising star female and rising star male respectively. "Just a year ago I was not even planning to become an actress. I was working in corporate industry. I always thought of becoming a banker. But I think destiny has its own role to play," said Parineeti who is enjoying new found fame after the success of "Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl" and "Ishaqzaade". "It feels really good that I have been getting so many awards. I promise to keep working harder and I hope to keep everybody happy," she added. Prateik, who has films like "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na", "My Friend Pinto" and "Aarakshan" to his credit, dedicated his trophy to the people he has worked with so far. "This is really encouraging. I would like to dedicate this to all the people who I have worked in all my films," he said. Theatre veteran Tom Alter was given an award for exemplary contribution to Indian theatre while recently crowned Miss Asia Pacific Himagini Singh Yadu was honoured with the title of inspirational youth icon. Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna was given an award in the category, India Ki Shaan- culinary. People from various corporate and marketing fields were also honoured at the awards ceremony. The event saw the unveiling of Planman`s second edition of "Powerbrands", a research-driven book, which talks about 100 most powerful brands of India. IANS