Award announced in the memory

Famous Bhojpuri Film producer Sudhakar Pandey was cremated at Sitakund Ghat of SUltanpur in U.P. on Saturday, 22nd August. His father Trivenidutta Pandey gave the Mukhagni as Sudhakar Pandey has died in a very young age of 37. Almost every social organisation was represented at Sitakund and so were family members, relatives and friends to participate in this tragic ritual of cremation.

All the bigwigs and everybody related with Bhojpuri Film Industry was present at a condolance meeting organised by Alok Kumar and Abhay Sinha at Andheri Ambedkar Bhawan on Saturday 22nd Aug 2009. They included Sunil Bubna, Abhay Sinha, Alok Kumar, Shyam Bahadur Singh, Mukesh Pandey, Aslam Sheikh, Rajkumaar Pandey, K.D., Harry Fernandes, Bablu Soni, Anand D Gahatraj, Kunal Singh, Ravi Kishan, Vinod Gupta, Ajay Kapoor, Brajesh Tripathi, Pankaj Kesri, Manoj Tiger, Karan Pandey, Rinku Ghosh, Rani Chatterjee, Pakhi Hegde, Sadhika Randhawa, Arimardan Singh, Himakshi, Rajesh Gupta, Dhananjay MIshra, Vinay Bihari, BIpin Bahar, Ashok Kumar Deep, Dilip Sinha, Pravesh Lal Yadav, Gopal Mehta, Ashok Mehta, Rajesh Pappu, Narsu, Samarjeet, Shashikant Singh, Prashant Nishant, Uday Bhagat, Bittu Sardar, Vijay Shukla and others.

In the condolance meeting Kunal Singh suggested that an award should be established in the memory of Sudhakar Pandey who revived the Bhojpuri Film Industry with his path breaking film Sasura Bada Paisa Wala, and also introduced two stars like manoj Tiwari and Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua to the industry. His suggestion was readily accepted by Vinod Gupta who announced that from the next Bhojpuri Film Awards a special award in memory of Sudhakar Pandey will be given to the deserving person who contributes for the promotion of Bhojpuri Cinema.

Sudhakar Pandey died at an early age of 37 years on Thursday, 20th Aug 2009 at a private hospital at Mumbai where he was undergoing treatment for his liver ailment. Later Manoj Tiwary went to Sultanpur with his dead body. Dinesh Lal Yadav and Manoj Mishra Mihir also went to his paternal village Bani in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh to share the grief of his family members.

Based on reports sent by Shashikant Singh and Uday Bhagat from Mumbai.