STAR Ananda, the most popular 24 hour Bengali news channel, will felicitate eminent personalities at a special ceremony, from diverse fields for their achievements that made the Bengali community proud, nationally and internationally. Sera Bangali will be held at Science city Convention Centre on 9th July, 6 pm onwards. This momentous ceremony has been growing from strength to strength each year and is an occasion which makes all Bengalis keenly proud.

STAR Ananda aims at reflecting and catalyzing the growth and resurgence of Bengal and also contributes to this process through this innovative programme. Sera Bangali is an earnest effort in this direction, as it recognizes individuals who have not only achieved excellence in their respective fields but have also helped Bengal emerge into the national as well as international limelight.

STAR Ananda, through Sera Bangali is dedicated to the recognition and felicitation of those personalities who have made Bengal proud and would continue to do so. Sera Bangali is the truest effort in this direction to recognize those successful Bengalis who not only have excelled in their respective fields, but have also helped in putting Bengalis in the global arena.

The awards will be presented in various categories like art, movies, music, business, science, sports, new face, public life and lifetime achievement.

Awardees List:

The award winners have been selected after an in-depth research by the STAR Ananda editorial team.

It will be a star studded event, starting with a grand felicitation ceremony followed by a scintillating entertainment show with enthralling performances by Shreya Ghosal, Prince Dance Group.

Profiles of Awardee:

Shreya Ghoshal

Shreya Ghoshal is best known for being a playback singer in Bollywood films, she has also performed several songs for other Indian film industries. Ghoshal's career began when she won the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contest as an adult. Her Bollywood playback singing career began with Devdas, for which she received both the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer and the Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent. Since then, she has worked in over 140 films. She has worked with many prominent Indian musicians, and several of her songs have achieved critical and commercial success. Ghoshal is one of the most awarded playback singers in recent times, with 4 National Film Awards and 4 Filmfare Awards to her credit.

Shakila

Shakila, born in a poor family, wife of a vegetable vendor is today one of the front ranking artists working in Bengal. She was inspired, helped and introduced to art world of Kolkata by BR Panesar sometime in the late 1980s. With Panesar’s aid Shakila had entered the art world and then gradually created an independent space for herself. Today Shakila is probably the only other collagist apart from Panesar whose works sell in the market and fetch good prices. Shakila mostly made scenes from rural life.This specific style of collage which for sometime was practised by artists like Devajyoti Ray, is however very different from those of Shakila where things are clear from the begining and the emphasis is laid more on expression.

Dibakar Banerjee

Dibakar Banerjee is an Indian film director and screenwriter, who is most known for films, Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), and Abhay Deol starrer, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), which he also wrote, both of which won National Film Awards . He joined advertising as a copywriter first and later he joined Contract Advertising, Delhi. In 1997, he left Contract to launch his own company, 'Watermark',he moved to Mumbai, and shot his debut feature film, Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006). The film went on to receive not just accolades for him but also a National Film Award amongst others, and brought him in the list of new filmmakers who were bringing about a marked shift in Bollywood themes under new filmmakers.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly

He graduated from Scottish Church College in Kolkata. During his school life he became a member of the Alekhine Chess Club and won the 1991 national junior (under-10) title at Trivandrum. He completed the Grandmaster norm in the year 2002 while playing for the Indian team in the 35th Chess Olympiad at Bled.[2] His most notable achievements include winning the Indian Chess Championship for five years in row from 2003 to 2008 and becoming the first 11 year old to defeat a grand master.[1] He was also among the team of seconds of many super grandmasters like Alexei Shirov in top level competitions.

Justice Ruma Pal

Justice Ruma Pal is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India who served on the bench from January 2000 to June 2006. The Honorable Mrs. Pal received her B.C.L. degree at Oxford University and started her practice in 1968 in Civil, Revenue, Labour and Constitutional matters in the Kolkata High Court. After a distinguished career as an advocate, she was appointed Judge in the Kolkata High Court in August 1990. She was appointed to Supreme Court of India in 2000. Justice Pal has delivered many critical judgments in famous cases, and has written on a number of human rights issues. She is a member of the International Forum of Women Judges and serves on the Committee of Experts of the International Labor Organization. Justice Pal also holds the Ford Foundation Chair for Human Rights at the National University for Juridical Sciences at Kolkata and is on the boards of several NGOs that work on human rights.

Dev

Bengali cinema’s latest superstar, Dev. After Uttam Kumar and Prosenjit, Dev is the only star who commands as big mass following, especially among the youth who still swear by his smash hits like Challenge and Paran Jai Jalia Re. The actor, famed for his dancing skill and tall lithe frame, admits that he wants to be remembered as a consummate actor too apart from his glamorous and macho look. In future he wants to consolidate his position in Tollywood and work towards improving himself as an actor.

Sharmila Tagore

Sharmila Tagore is an Indian film actress. She has won several National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards for her performances. Tagore began her career as an actress in the 1959 Satyajit Ray film Apur Sansar (The World of Apu), as the ill-fated bride of the title character. She established herself as a popular Hindi film actress with Shakti Samanta's Kashmir Ki Kali in 1964. Samanta again cast her in many more hit films, notably An Evening in Paris (1967). Tagore worked in many superhit bollywood movies like Amar Prem, Aradhana, Daag, Maalik, Safar, Mausam and currently she is the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification.

Dr. Sankar Chatterjee

Sankar Chatterjee is a paleontologist, and is the Paul W. Horn Professor of Geosciences at Texas Tech University and Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Calcutta in 1970 and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution from 1977-1978. Dr. Chatterjee's has focused on the origin, evolution, functional anatomy, and systematics of Mesozoic vertebrates, including basal archosaurs, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and birds. He has researched Late Triassic reptiles in India, such as phytosaurs, rhynchosaurs, and prolacertiformes. He is best known for his work on vertebrates recovered in the 1980s from the Post Quarry in the Late Triassic Cooper Canyon Formation (Dockum Group) of West Texas.

P. K Mukherjee

P.K. Mukherjee, is the managing director and CEO of Sesa Goa. His ability to find answers where none exist, has taken Sesa Goa far, and Mukherjee to the top of the valuable CEOs list of the company. Sesa Goa Limited, the flagship company of Sesa Group is India's largest exporter of iron ore in the private sector. For the past five decades, the Group has been involved in iron ore mining, beneficiation and exports, with a group turonver of around Rs. 4900 crores.