November 2012

The Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on 1 November 2012 was conferred with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Ambassador to India François Richier. She was awarded on behalf of the French Authorities. She was conferred with the award for the contributions made by her to Indian and World Cinema and the developments in Indo-French cooperation in art, culture and the most important one, Cinema.

Late Habib Tanvir, Nandita Das, Raghu Rai, Shahrukh Khan, and Upamanyu Chatterjee are few more Indians who had been conferred with this prestigious French award.

ABOUT AISHWARYA RAI BACHCHAN

• The youngest Indian Actress to win Padmashree in 2009. Padmashree is the fourth highest civilian award given by the Union Government of India

• She is the first Indian Actress to be among the jury members at Cannes

• She made her debut in the Indian film industry with Mani Ratnam’s Tamilo Film Iruvar in 1997

• Has received two Best Actress Awards at Filmfare for her films Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam in 1999 and Devdas in the year 2002

• In the year 2012, she was appointed as the goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS

• To promote eye donation in India, she was appointed as the brand ambassador for the Eye Bank Association of India’s nationwide campaign

• She became the brand Ambassador for Pulse Polio in 2005 a mission established by the Union Government of India for polio eradication from the country

• To raise awareness about the main goals and priorities of the United Nations’ poverty alleviation efforts, she was appointed as the spokesperson for the International Year of Microcredit

• For Smile Train, she was appointed as its first Goodwill Ambassador in the year 2009. It is an international charity established to provide free Cleft lip and palate surgery to children across 76 different developing countries.

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