filmmaker Goutam Ghose and composer-singer Bappi Lahiri were on Saturday conferred the West Bengal’s “Mahanayak Samman” awards.

• Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee conferred the Mahanayak Samman for best director on Ghose, known for helming National Award winning films like “Sankhachil” and “Abar Aranye”.

• The awards were instituted in 2012 in the memory of Bengali matinee idol Uttam Kumar who is revered in this part of India as “Mahanayak (Great hero)”.

• In addition to Ghose, director-actor Kaushik Ganguly was also honoured with the award for best director.

• Paran Bandyopadhyay and Jishu Sengupta received the best actor (male) awards while Sohini Sarkar received the best actor (female) award.

• Bengali films “Bela sheshe” and “Shankhachil” were jointly awarded as the best Bengali films of the year. West Bengal CM also announced the launch of online ticketing system for the state-run theatre Nandan from August 1.

Awards conferred on the occasion includes

• Best director: Goutam Ghose and Kaushik Ganguly

• Best actor (male) awards: Paran Bandyopadhyay and Jishu Sengupta

• Best actor (female) award: Sohini Sarkar

• Bishesh Sangeet Samman: Dwijen Mukhyopadhyay, Ajoy Chakraborty and Sandhya Mukherjee.

• Maha Sangeet Samman: Shantanu Moitra, Mohammad Aziz, Kumar Bose and Shibaji Chattopadhyay.

• Special Sangeet Samman: Sriradha Bandyopadhyay, Dileep Kumar Bose, Fakir Alamgir, and Nachiketa

• Best Bengali films: Bela sheshe and Shankhachil