Rekha was all praises for Smita Patil while receiving the first Smita Patil Memorial Award. The evergreen actress said she will always consider Smita as her younger sister and even confessed that the latter was a better actress than she. "I am here to receive this award which signifies the excellence of her craft, her acting, dancing abilities or her ability to be fearless in front of the camera or the way she could lift those beautiful eyes of hers and make a statement without saying a word,” Rekha said and added, "She was way more brilliant as an actress which I got to know 30 years ago when I saw her films. She is a far better actor than me or anybody else. She was, is and will always remain my choti si pyaari behen (younger sister)."