The Padma Awards were announced on Saturday, with several prominent individuals being honoured across various fields. Among those awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India, were actors Anant Nag, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Tamil actor Ajith Kumar, dancer and actress Shobhana and singer Pankaj Udhas (posthumously). The list also included filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.
In the category of Padma Shri, Arijit Singh, composer and musician Ricky Kej, and singer Jaspinder Narula, along with Barry Godfray John and others received recognition.
In the realm of arts, the Padma Awards honoured several artists, including Kumudini Rajnikant Lakhia, Lakshminarayana Subramaniam, Sharda Sinha (posthumously), Jatin Goswami, and Adwaita Charan Gadanayak. Other notable awardees include Achyut Ramchandra Palav, Ashok Laxman Saraf, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Begam Batool, Bharat Gupt, Bheru Singh Chouhan, Durga Charan Ranbir, Farooq Ahmad Mir, Gokul Chandra Das, Guruvayur Dorai, Harjinder Singh Srinagar Wale, Hassan Raghu, Joynacharan Bathari, K Omanakutty Amma, Madugula Nagaphani Sarma, Mahabir Nayak, Miriyala Apparao (posthumously), Naren Gurung, Nirmala Devi, P Datchanamoorthy, Pandi Ram Mandavi, Parmar Lavjibhai Nagjibhai, Radhakrishnan Devasenapathy, Ranendra Bhanu Majumdar, Ratan Kumar Parimoo, Shyam Bihari Agrawal, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Thiyam Suryamukhi Devi, Vasudeo Kamath, Velu Aasaan, and Venkappa Ambaji Sugatekar.
The Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, was posthumously awarded to renowned Malayalam writer MT Vasudevan Nair, who died in December 2024. Folk singer Sharda Sinha, who also died last year, was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan for her contribution to folk music.
