She identifies herself as a Hindu. Banerjee is a self-taught painter and a poet. Her 300 paintings were sold for ₹9crore (₹90 million, £990,000 or US$1,350,000). In 2012, Time magazine named her as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Bloomberg Markets magazine listed her among the 50 most influential people in the world of finance in September 2012. In 2018, she was conferred the Skoch Chief Minister of the Year Award. Banerjee stepped out into the streets of Kolkata during lockdown, caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, to spread awareness among the common people. "She has always been a fighter" said Yashwant Sinha while disclosing that Mamata had offered to be a hostage as part of a negotiation strategy during the Kandahar hijacking crisis. "She was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the country" Sinha added. While appealing for maintaining religious harmony, Banerjee has reiterated the fact on numerous occasions that "Religion is personal, but festivals are universal." In 2021, Mamata Banerjee was invited to attend World Meeting for Peace in Rome. She was the only Indian invited to attend the event. But in September, the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denied her permission to attend the peace conference stating that the event was not "commensurate in status for participation by the chief minister of a state". BJP MP Subramanian Swamy slammed Modi government on Banerjee's Rome visit cancelation. According to Indian Diplomat K. P. Fabian, the reason cited by MEA was unconvincing. Similarly, in December, Banerjee was denied permission by the MEA to visit Nepal. TIME magazine published its annual list of 'The 100 Most Influential People of 2021' on 15 September 2021. The list includes Mamata Banerjee among others. She received an honorary doctorate from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar. She was also honoured with a Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt.) degree by Calcutta University. In popular culture Baghini, a Bengali film, inspired by Mamata Banerjee's life, was released on 24 May 2019. It is not a biopic. Works in literature and other fields Numerous books written by her have been published so far. On 2022, she was given Paschimbanga Akademy Award for 'Kabita Bitan' which consists of 946 poems. She is also a self-taught painter. Her paintings are auctioned several times. She is also a lyricist and her compositions are mostly based on 'Durga Puja' and 'Motherland'. 'Maa Go Tumi Sarbojanin'