Receiving the Lifetime Achievement award, theatre veteran Rudraprasad Sengupta knelt down on the stage with folded hands, accepting the honour “in all humility” at such a gathering. “If you were to evaluate Sombhu Mitra, Ajitesh Bandopadhyay and Utpal Dutt, who would you rate the highest?” asked anchor Suman De. “You cannot compare one to the other. They were all my teachers and I take this opportunity to pay my respects,” smiled the Nandikar man.

 

 

Aveek Sarkar, chief editor of the ABP Group, presented Sunanda Banerjee with the Sherar Shera award. An alumnus of Presidency College, Banerjee was the “first Indian to join the Cern team” in search of the Higgs boson. “How much has the city changed?” he was asked. “The city has definitely progressed, but Calcutta has remained humane,” said Banerjee, who has been working at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics since 2010.

 

 

 

Shera Bangali 2013 for Science went to Anita Sengupta.Doesn’t NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s senior EDL engineer, with a passion for bikes, want to be an astronaut? “I think space exploration is amazing! Being able to take part in the Mars exploration, it means technically all of us who worked on that mission are already in space. But it will be fascinating to go into space,” smiled Anita, adding: “It is very exciting to be back in Calcutta after all these years!”

 

 

 

 

 

Sohini Sengupta took home the Shera Bangali trophy for Acting. “If you were to pick either Rudraprasad in Little Buddha or Swatilekha Sengupta in Ghare Baire for a Shera Bangali award in acting, who would you choose?” asked Suman. “I would give it to myself,” laughed the Alik Sukh actress, receiving the trophy from her father while mom Swatilekha cheered on.

 

Howrah girl Chhanda Gayen, who scaled Mount Everest in May, won for Shera Avishkar. “Aren’t you upset that Chhanda Gayen has to battle such odds while the Everest is just a clap away for Goopy Gyne?” asked Suman. “I don’t feel angry at all. That’s fantasy. This is reality!” smiled the mountaineer, receiving her trophy from Tolly stars Jeet and Koel.

 

 

 

Nabaneeta Dev Sen presented Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay with the Shera Bangali award for Literature. “Do you believe in ghosts?” he was asked. “I believe in ghosts a lot and I am scared too!” smiled the witty writer of Goynar Baksho.

 

 

 

 

Paresh Maity received the Shera Bangali award for Art from Sabyasachi Chakrabarty. “People say oil and water don’t mix. How do you pull it off on canvas?” he was asked. “I work in mixed media, painting is my aim. The media is not that important,” smiled Paresh.

 

 

 

 

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani composer Pritam was the Shera Bangali for Music. “This win is special as my mother always wanted me to be on this stage,” smiled Pritam, taking his trophy from Saswata Chatterjee.

 

 

 

 

 

Sourav Ganguly gave away the Shera Bangali award for Sports to shooter Joydeep Karmakar. “Shooting demands concentration. So we cannot afford to think of someone we hate as the target! We are the only people on earth who use the rifle for a good cause,” quipped the Olympian.

 

 

 

 

 

Korbo lorbo jeetbo re man Sujoy Ghosh received the Shera Bangali award for Direction from his Kahaani actor Abir Chatterjee, who he fondly calls “Chhobibabu”. The two Bomkeshs made for a great bromance picture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samir Chaudhuri, the man behind CINI, was the Shera Bangali for Public Life. “While working on a research project at AIIMS, I went around 3,000 homes and I found that malnutrition was a social disease. That’s why I started CINI. Now, there are 1,500 workers,” said Chaudhuri, who received the award from former revenue secretary Sunil Mitra.