Aishwarya Overwhelmed on Receiving French Award on Birthday

 

 Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was honored by France with a prestigious civilian award for her contribution to art Nov. 2 on her birthday.
Francois Richier, ambassador of France to India, was present to confer the honor of 'Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters' (Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres), the second highest civilian French honor on her.
"I want to thank the French government for honoring me with this award. It is truly overwhelming," Aishwarya told reporters here.
"Also, I take this opportunity to thank everyone who I have worked with as they made it possible for me to have such a glorious career," she said.
Aishwarya's entire family including husband Abhishek, in-laws Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan and daughter Aaradhya were present.
Aishwarya, who turned 39 Nov. 2, took the Miss World crown in 1994 and made her acting debut in 1997. She starred in films in various languages including English, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali. She is a regular on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.
Her father-in-law, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, was awarded France's highest civilian award, the Legion d'Honneur in 2007.
One can recollect that in 2009, Aishwarya was to be conferred upon the same award but she did not accept it because her father Krishnaraj Rai was unwell.
Amitabh Bachchan is clearly one proud father-in-law after his 'bahu' Aishwarya Rai was conferred with the French honor.
"Aishwarya celebrates her birthday and also a recognition by the French Government.. they confer on her the medal of honor for arts and letters, their second biggest award.
"Many years ago the French had decorated me with the Legion d'Honor their highest medal and now the family prides itself with having two of the family gaining recognition from the French," Big B wrote on his blog.
In 2003, the 70-year-old megastar was conferred with the honorary citizenship of the French town of Deauville. He also has honorary doctorates from the De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, the University Brandan Foster by the Leeds Metropolitan University in Yorkshire, UK, and the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.
"There have been many other recognitions that have been conferred on family members and each time it happens, a sense of pride and joy fills us all. Our own National Padma Awards have been won by several members and the figure I believe is 5... other countries too have been most generous to us - USA, Russia, Morocco, Afghanistan, Egypt, Kenya, Canada, UK, South Africa, Poland... in some way or the other.
"There is a sense of great pride that runs within us whenever there is achievement, though I must admit that there is an equal sense of humility in all these gratifying moments," he added.
source internet...