`Big B''honoured with lifetime achievement award at 11th Mumbai Film Festival

Mumbai, Nov. 6 : Cine icon Amitabh Bachchan was felicitated with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival on Thursday for completing 40 years in the film industry.

The festival, which concluded on Thursday, hosted over 200 films from 56 countries.

"White Lightnin" directed by Dominic Murphy was adjudged the best film at the festival.

The annual event''s budget was boosted with 40 million rupees from Reliance Big Entertainment, a division of the Reliance ADA Group.

Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos was also honoured with a Lifetime Achievement award.

Fellow actor Dev Anand''s production house Navketan films, was also felicitated for completing 60 years in the film industry.

Speaking to media persons on receiving the award, an excited Bachchan shared the award with his colleagues of the film industry.

"No person can rise in his talent without others support, especially in this industry. Unless you have the support of others, you are nowhere. So, I would like to congratulate everybody of the film industry, who supported me from director to music director, assistant, spot boy, all my leading ladies and all my leading men that I had the good fortune to work with, because of whom I was able to spend so many years in the industry," said Bachchan.

He also thanked the people of India for their unconditional support and love.

"I do want to thank primarily the people of my country for giving me their love, their support, their affection and their prayers on many an occasion, trial and tribulation that I have gone through and I truly feel very, very humble in their presence. May they continue to like what we do and hopefully the few years that are left in my career, may they continue to enjoy what we do," Bachchan added.

Fellow actor Preity Zinta described Bachchan as a "wonderful actor".

"There is nothing you can say about Mr Bachchan because he has been acting before I was born and he is a wonderful actor. You always get to learn with him," said Zinta.

Born on October 11, 1942, Amitabh Bachchan first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema, and has since become one of the most prominent figures in the history of Indian cinema.

He has won numerous major awards including three National Film Awards and twelve Filmfare Awards. He holds the record for most number of Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards.

He is married to actor Jaya Bahaduri and they have two children Shweta Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan.