Actor Bhavana has been chosen for the Chintha Raveendran Award 2026, instituted in the memory of the film-maker, art critic, and travelogue writer.

A press release said here on Saturday that the award carrying a purse of ₹50,000, citation, and a sculpture would be presented to the actor at an event to be held at the Kozhikode Town Hall on July 25. The award jury consisting of poet K. Satchidanandan and journalists K.C. Narayanan and M.P. Surendran said Ms. Bhavana was chosen for the honour considering her “battles for protecting the independent existence of women in Kerala’s social life.”

Writer N.S. Madhavan will preside over the award ceremony in which senior journalist Shashi Kumar and writer Paul Zacharia will also speak. N. Ram, former Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, and Director, The Hindu Group Publishing Private Ltd., will deliver a lecture on ‘Unmaking the republic: How Hindutva authoritarianism is dismantling the basic structure of Indian Constitution’.

This is the seventh award being given in memory of Raveendran, who passed away in 2011. As part of the commemoration event, an exhibition will also be held at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery, Kozhikode, from July 20. Titled ‘Echoes of an unfinished dream’, it will be curated by artist Sunil Ashokapuram. Sculptor Valsan Koorma Kolleri will open it. The exhibition is part of ‘The Names of Gaza’ events held across the State by the foundation where names of 18,000 children killed in the Israeli attack on the Palestinian town were read out.