Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar were remembered as “singer” and “actor”, respectively, in the in-memoriam section of the Bafta film awards held on Sunday night at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The evening’s host, the Australian comic actress Rebel Wilson, introduced the greats of cinema lost over the past 12 months: “As we honour those whose work has surpassed all expectations this year, we shouldn’t forget those who are no longer with us but people who have laid such a strong foundation for the work we are celebrating tonight.”

When Lata died on February 7, The Guardian called her “the nightingale of Bollywood”. After Dilip Kumar passed away, aged 98, on July 7, 2021, The Times, London, described him as “Bollywood’s answer to Marlon Brando” and “a towering figure in Hindi cinema and a meticulously dedicated method actor”.

Image of Dilip Kumar shown at Bafta. The Telegraph

Among others who were also remembered were composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim; actress Sally Kellerman from the American TV series M*A*S*H (“well, I like to think of the army as my home”) and actor, director and producer Sir Sidney Poitier KBE (“They call me Mr Tibbs” from In The Heat of the Night).

One of the evening’s presenters was British Indian actor Himesh Patel, star of the film Yesterday.

The Baftas have become ethnically much more diverse under the radical leadership of Krishnendu Majumdar, the first non-white chairman of the organisation marking its 75th anniversary this year.

Majumdar, born in Wales to Bengali parents from Calcutta — his father Rupendra Majumdar was a doctor — told the audience: “We are hugely grateful to the journalists and film-makers covering Ukraine, many of whom are Bafta members, who are bravely reporting and documenting the conflict and humanitarian crisis.”

Jane Campion’s moody western The Power of the Dog won the best film and best director awards although its male lead Benedict Cumberbatch was beaten to the best actor award by Will Smith.

Cumberbatch was among a number of stars who wore a badge with the colours of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow.

On the red carpet, when asked if his badge “could be dismissed as tokenism”, he replied: “This (ceremony) is a celebration of an industry that’s about imagery, and images speaking as loud as if not louder sometimes than words. So it’s a small gesture.

“But away from this, what we all have to do is continue to put pressure on our politicians as far as the refugee crisis goes, continue to put pressure on the Putin regime, continue to help in any which way we can — whether that’s through donations or housing refugees, all of which I’m looking to do and have done.”