Aishwarya Rai to be honoured with Women in Film and Television India's Meryl Streep Award for Excellence

Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will be honoured with the inaugural Meryl Streep Award for Excellence at the first Women in Film and Television (WIFT) India Awards. The Miss World 1994, will receive the award on Saturday at the Hyatt Regency here, writes The  Hollywood Reporter. [caption id=“attachment_4407887” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Aishwarya Rai Bachchan/Image from Twitter.[/caption] WIFT India told THR that Aishwarya will receive the award for showcasing a ‘distinction in her craft and for expanding the role of women within the entertainment industry.’ Apart from Aishwarya, filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, who has helmed films like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Dil Dhadakne Do will receive the Wyler Award for Excellence in Direction, and Janhvi Kapoor who debuted in Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak will receive the WIFT Emerald Award. WIFT India will also award Producer of the Year to Catherine Hand for adapting Madeleine L’Engle’s award A Wrinkle in Time into a film, which was directed by Ava DuVernay. “The Wyler Award is so surreal for me as I grew up in Bombay (Mumbai), got a video player in the eighties and one of the first films I ever saw on it was Ben-Hur,” Zoya said. WIFT has been established to honour the best female talent in Bollywood and Hollywood. (With inputs from Indo-Asian News Service)