PRESS RELASE
Mumbai:Maninder Sign Bitta, President of the Anti-Terrorsist Front,Hasmukh Thakur, President – Maharashtra, ATF and Sanjeev Gupta, the President – Mumbai of Anti-Terrorist Front, honored actor John Abraham by conferring the ‘Pride of the Nation’ award on him for his role in Madras Café – a film that highlights the Rajeev Gandhi assassination on16 September, 2013 at New Delhi .
“John is a big actor. It takes courage to portray something as offbeat as his character in the film. Such efforts deserve to be recognized and honored in order to promote the spirit of national integration, brotherhood and to fight terrorism in all its forms,” said Sanjeev Gupta, at the heels of the program.
Bitta, the President of the ATF was all praise for the actor. “Abraham has made a courageous attempt to unravel the conspiracy behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi,” he said. The film “Madras Cafe” recalls the series of events in the 80s and early 1990s woven around the Sri Lankan civil war and the subsequent assassination of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
John Abraham said he was exploring making a movie on Havaldar Abdul Hamid, who was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously following the 1965 Indo-Pak war. “Abdul Hamid made the supreme sacrifice during the war. His story is awe-inspiring. I will definitely try to make a movie on his life,” Abraham said during the function that was titled ‘Zara Yaad Karo Qurbani’.Bitta added that there remains scope for an “unbiased enquiry to expose the conspiracy” which resulted in the death of Rajiv Gandhi.
The event also saw Hamid’s 92-year-old wife Rasoolan Bibi being handed the Veer Bravery Award awarded to her husband. Bravery awards were also given to four BSF men who lost their lives in a Naxal attack in Odisha, to five army personnel, who died in an ambushed in Pooch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, and to two army soldiers beheaded by Pakistani troops this year in January.
Komal Malhotra from Delhi, who fought bravely against chain snatchers despite a bullet injury, was also honored with an award by John Abraham.