Kolkata – Veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee will be first Bengali actor has been selected for France’s highest civilian award, Legion of Honour, for his outstanding contribution to cinema and theatre.French govt people will go to Kolkata later this year to confer the award.French award 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, Amatabh Bachaan, Shahrukh Khan and Kamal Hasan. Chatterjee was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2012.
