Veteran Bollywood lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar has become the first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award for critical thinking, advancing human progress and humanist values.
The award is named after English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and has been presented since 2003.
His wife, actress Shabana Azmi announced the honour on Twitter on Sunday.
Actors ranging from his son Farhan Akhtar to Anil Kapoor and Dia Mirza congratulated the veteran lyricist.
Javed Akhtar has also earlier been awarded the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2007), has won five National Awards for Best Lyricist and the Sahitya Akademi Award.