Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, Madhur Bhandarkar honoured

Come Wednesday and three personalities from theatre and the film industry will be conferred the Ganga Sharan Singh Award by President Dr Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. Madhur Bhandarkar, Shyam Benegal and Girish Karnad are the privileged ones to be honoured for their contribution to Hindi language.
The Ganga Sharan Singh Award is a literary honour that the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan (Central Hindi Organisation), Ministry of Human Resource Development annually confers on writers of outstanding works in Hindi literature.It is also given to those who play an important role in promoting the Hindi language through their area of expertise.
This isn't the first time Bhandarkar, Benegal and Karnad are being felicitated. Benegal has been the recipient of the Padma Shri (1976) and Padma Bhushan (1991) Awards. Girish Karnad too has been conferred the Padma Shri (1974) and Padma Bhushan (1992) Awards.
For Madhur Bhandarkar, this is the fourth time he is receiving a Presidential award. In 2001 and 2005, he was conferred the National Film Award for Best Film for Chandni Bar and Page 3, respectively, by the then President APJ Kalam. In 2007, he was conferred the National Film Award for Best Director for Traffic Signal by the President.
When contacted, Bhandarkar said, "I am honoured. It's a great moment in my life." Benegal and Karnad however remained unavailable for comment.