Anushka Sharma was interacting with the media along with husband and Indian captain Virat Kohli at the second edition of Indian Sports Honours on Friday in Mumbai.
The initiative has the backing of Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman, RP-SG Group and India captain Kohli. Top performers in 17 sporting disciplines were felicitated.
The winners of 11 categories (Jury Honours) were decided by ISH Jury members, which comprised sporting champions such as Pullela Gopichand, Abhinav Bindra, Sardar Singh, Mahesh Bhupathi, P T Usha and Anjali Bhagwat.
Apart from the Jury Honours, there were six 'Popular Choice Honours'. Winners for this were decided through an online voting process on Twitter.
The nominations across categories were shortlisted by 200 journalists from Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI).
"I am associated with this award ceremony because my husband is associated with it. I think it's a unique initiative where you give backing and support to upcoming and promising Indian athletes. I think Virat has given many reasons to be proud of but his foundation is another reason to feel prouder, because of the work being done. The awards ceremony covers all kind of sports and that increases the sporting culture," said Anushka.
After hosting the event, India cricket captain Kohli said: "I think it is necessary to recognise sporting talent in India so, I am happy this award ceremony is taking place. It also provides scholarship to emerging sporting talent which I think is important to develop sports culture in our country."
Bollywood celebrities like Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Madhu Chopra, Kartik Aaryan, Arjun Kapoor, Neha Sharma, Aisha Sharma, Javed Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Sona Mohapatra, Ram Sampath and Aparshakti Khurana attended the event.
Sports personalities spotted at the do included Sania Mirza, Ajinkya Rahane, Zaheer Khan along with wife Sagarika Ghatge, Yuvraj Singh along with wife Hazel Keech, Milkha Singh, Dipa Karmakar, Satnam Singh, Smriti Mandhana and Sardar Singh.
( With inputs from IANS )