What

The Telegraph She Awards 2021, presented by IIHM and powered by JD Birla Institute in association with Kutchina. The celebration partner was Campo Viejo and Jacob’s Creek with David & Goliath and The Grid as co-sponsors. Eastern Diagnostics was the healthcare partner and Sharbari the gift partner. JW Marriott Kolkata was the hospitality partner with TV partner ABP Ananda, radio partner 91.9 Friends FM and event partner Cherry Tree.

Where

JW Marriott Kolkata

When

March 17

The ceremony Instituted in 2016 to recognise women achievers with a Bengal connect, this year too saw the jury — Madhu Neotia, Sanjukta Bose, Koel Mallick and Patti Hoffman — pick a set of illustrious awardees across disciplines.

Actress Swastika Mukherjee was back as the host. The evening started on a musical note with a performance by violinist Sunita Bhuyan. The winners were presented with beautiful trophies designed by Narayan Sinha and saris from gifting partner Sharbari.

The guests tucked into a yummy dinner later, laid out by JW Marriott Kolkata.

Suborno Bose, CEO & chief mentor, IIHM, felicitated jury members (l-r) Madhu Neotia, Koel Mallick and Sanjukta Bose, with conch artefacts from Glow-n-Glitter and flowers.

Jury speak

Madhu Neotia : This year was very interesting because some of the winners were people who made a mark for themselves but were never acknowledged before. The selection was very interesting as it had veterans to contemporaries and that combination really worked. It was heart-warming to see how the winners were really touched as many of them came up to us and talked to us later — it is incredible to know that The Telegraph She Awards has that weightage and how beautifully it has grown to be such a valued recognition for women who have been doing and continuing to do such incredible work

Sanjukta Bose: This was my fourth year on the jury and like always, it was a great experience. Those nominated were all too talented and to select the winner for some categories was especially difficult because some of them are so talented and so experienced. I feel that more categories could be included as this encourages others to do more and become deserving. The awards are becoming more glittering day by day. This year was very different due to the pandemic and nobody thought that a physical awards show could be pulled off, but the ceremony was beautiful!

Koel Mallick: It is a fantastic initiative to acknowledge the accomplishments of the talented, extremely skilful women achievers from different walks of life. Everyone is so deserving, so it becomes really difficult for us to arrive at a decision about the person who would be receiving the award. Their body of work is so amazing, inspiring, with them being extremely brilliant in their respective fields. We all got to know about the wonderful things they have done, how they overcame the odds to achieve their dreams. For me, women empowerment is all about believing in yourself and doing what makes you happy. It was a very exciting experience being a part of the jury

Patti Hoffman

It was my honour to be part of the She Awards jury this year and I would like to thank The Telegraph for asking me to participate. It was a very inspirational experience to read about all of the nominees and I would like to congratulate the winners as well as the nominees themselves because they really represent a wonderful group of women who have had inspiring careers across a long lifetime and many different sectors including theatre, arts and music. It was just very inspiring to hear their stories. Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners as well.

The Telegraph She Awards pictures: Pabitra Das, Rashbehari Das and B. Halder