Sonam Kapoor presents Neerja Bhanot award to Subhashini Vasanth
The Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust confers the award every year, to women who show grit and determination in adversity.
The Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust conferred the Neerja Bhanot Award to Subhashini Vasanth at an event in Chandigar. Present there to hand over the awards, was Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor, who will be seen playing the flight attendant on the big screen.
The trust picked Subhashini this year’s recipient, for her years of service towards creating a support system for the well-being of families of soldiers who laid down their lives in the service of the nation.
For the event, Sonam Kapoor dressed up in a simple white churidar with a beige shimmer jacket. The actress who was last seen in Salman Khan’s ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’, will be seen playing the lead role of Neerja in the upcoming biopic. Neerja Bhanot was a flight attendant for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, who was murdered while saving passengers from terrorists on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on September 5, 1986.
She later became the youngest recipient of Indias highest peacetime military award for bravery, the Ashok Chakra.
Sonam shared a message via her social networking handle that read: In Neerja's motherland Chandigarh for the Neerja Bhanot Pan Am awards. Missing her mother Rama Ji. She would have been 87 today. Had the honour of presenting the award to @subhashinivasant for her incredible work with families of martyrs. I'm humbled to be on this stage and I'm privileged to tell the story of a 23 year old girl who save 359 lives. Saluting Neerja and all the awardees!"
This year, marked the 24th year of the annual award which comprises Rs 1,50,000, a citation and a trophy. The awardee is selected by a specially constituted jury who look for a woman who shows grit and determination in adversity.
Subhashini Vasanth is the founder trustee of Vasantharatna Foundation, started in the memory of her husband, Colonel Vasanth V, who was awarded the Ashok Chakra (Posthumous) in 2008 after he lost his life fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.