Sharmila Tagore, received the lifetime achievement award in the 6th Annual Chicago South Asian Film Festival presented by Zee Cinema for her groundbreaking performance in Bengali and Hindi cinema at a gala awards ceremony in downtown Chicago on October 4, 2015.

The highlight of the festival was the screening of Satyajit Ray’s film “Devi” at the Art Institute of Chicago. Devi is a 1960 Bengali drama film starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore. It is based on a short story by Provatkumar Mukhopadhyay. The title means “Goddess”.

Sharmila, while receiving the award, said that working with Ray was the most progressive time in her acting career and the performances have added a great deal to her initial learning.