Indian actor Rekha will be honoured by the upcoming Dubai International Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The festival runs from December 7 to 14, and is now arguably the leading cinematic event in the region with both Doha and Abu Dhabi having shut shop some time ago.

• In a four-decade career that saw her act in 180 movies, Rekha’s first steps into filmdom were unimpressive and seemed dangerously close to being one that would crash even before taking off.
• Although her first work as a heroine was no less than one with the reigning Kannada superstar of the day, Rajkumar, in Operation Jackpot Nalli CID 999 in 1969, she actually came into the limelight with a Hindi picture, Sawan Badon, in 1970 co-starring with Navin Nischol.
• The movie was a runaway success, but Rekha was yet to arrive! And apart from her dark complexion and plump figure — two hugely minus points in the Hindi cinema industry — nobody really thought that Rekha would become an actor worth the name.
• What is even more impressive about the Dubai honour is that it has been bestowed on some of the giants of cinema, like Omar Sharif, Catherine Deneuve, Faten Hamamah, Morgan Freeman, Sean Penn, Youssef Chahine, Martin Sheen, Oliver Stone, Yash Chopra and Subhash Ghai.
• And Rekha, once shunned by her own industry, now stands rubbing shoulders with these great men and women celebrated the world over.