Four icons of the film world--Dilip Kumar, Tapan Sinha, Lata Mangeshkar and Saroja -- Devi will be conferred upon the " One Time Award for Life Time Achievement " to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of India's Independence.

Tapan Sinha, one of the all-time celluloid greats, would be presented the honour for his contribution to the field of film direction.

In view of his failing health, Mr Sinha will be given the award by West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna at his residence in Kolkata on june 20. Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi will be present on the occasion.

The Award citation underlines the director's ''amazingly down-to-earth cinematic depiction of the struggles of the common man. His reputation as an uncompromising filmmaker, a celluloid iconoclast, puts him in a class of his own.

A storyteller par excellence, Tapan Sinha's films such as Kabuliwala (1957), Haatey Bazaare (1967), Safed Hathu (1977) are well-crafted in terms of structure and technique, exhibiting his virtuosity and capability to handle a range of subjects with equal elan and sensitivity."

Tapan Sinha's work has won 19 National Film Awards in various categories apart from laurels in international film festivals like those in Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco and Locarno.

He began his film career as a sound engineer in Kolkata's New Theatre in 1946.

In 1950 he got the opportunity of working at Pinewood Studios in the UK where he spent two years. On returning to India, he turned his attention to film directing, making films in Bengali, Hindi and also Oriya.