The Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust will be conferring the Neerja Bhanot award on Subhashini Vasanth of Bengaluru in Chandigarh. The award will be presented by Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor, who is playing the lead role in biopic “Neerja”. The trust said that “This is the 24th year of the annual award which comprises Rs 1,50,000, a citation and a trophy.”

The awardee is selected by a specially constituted jury who look for a woman who shows grit and determination in adversity. Subhashini Vasanth is the founder trustee of Vasantharatna Foundation, started in the memory of her husband, Colonel Vasanth V, who was awarded the Ashok Chakra (Posthumous) in 2008 after he lost his life fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Neerja Bhanot was a flight attendant for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, India, who was murdered while saving passengers from terrorists on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on September 5, 1986. Posthumously, she became the youngest recipient of India’s highest peacetime military award for bravery, the Ashok Chakra.