- Eminent children’s film-maker Vinod Ganatra has been conferred with South Africa’s prestigious ‘Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his contribution to films.
- Vinod Ganatra becomes the first Indian to be honoured with the ‘Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award.
- Vinod Gantra was conferred with the award at the 7th Nelson Mandela Children’s Film Festival for his outstanding contribution to children’s cinema.
- Globally renowned filmmaker and editor Vinod Ganatra of Gujarat but now based in Mumbai has been active in Film & Television Production from 1982.
- He has edited and directed about 400 Documentaries and newsreels. He has Produced 25 multilingual television programmes for Children and youth. His first TV programme, BAINGAN RAJA, won the ‘Janakinath Gaur Award’ from Doordarshan.
- His Gujarati film Harun Arun made on the India Pakistan border received the “Liv Ullmann Peace Prize” at the 26th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. He is the only Indian to have won the prestigious ‘Liv Ullmann Peace Prize”.
- Ganatra has won 36 national and International awards. He is also the recipient of the “DadaSaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award” conferred by the Association of Film and Video Editors.‘
- Ganatra also has the distinction of being a member of the jury of over 100 national, regional and international film festivals world over.
Nelson Mandela
- Nelson Mandela is perhaps the most famous personality in South Africa who has the distinction of being the first black President of South Africa.
- He was born on 18 July 1918 in South Africa, which followed an official apartheid policy.
- Under the apartheid policy, the country followed a racial segregation policy which denied political and other civil rights to the black majority, ethnic Indians, and coloured population of South Africa.
- Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk were honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
- The Indian government conferred him with the country’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, in 1990. He is the second non-Indian after Pakistan’s Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (1987) to receive India’s highest civilian award
- His birthday, 18 July, is observed as Nelson Mandela International Day.