Thiruvananthapuram | Malayalam superstar Mammootty, who was conferred with the Padma Bhushan on Sunday, said that he was "very happy" on hearing the news and that there was "nothing greater than the country honouring one."
Fondly called 'Mammukka' by his fans and those close to him, the 74-year-old actor described the award as "unexpected" while speaking to a TV channel here.
Wishes began pouring in on social media as news spread about the award, which was conferred on the superstar for his contributions to the field of art.
"Congratulations, Mammukka! And thank you for showing us how boundaries are broken, and challenges are taken up with a smile! You're our pride and one of a kind," actor Manju Warrier wrote in a Facebook post.
Actor Kamal Haasan, in a post on 'X', also congratulated Mammootty on receiving the honour.
"My friend Mammootty has now become Padma Bhushan Mammootty. Congratulations to my friend," he said.
The Padma Awards — among the highest civilian awards in the country — are conferred in three categories: Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri.
Mammootty has acted in over 400 films in various languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and English, besides Malayalam, in a career spanning more than five decades.
Three National Awards, seven State Awards, 14 Filmfare Awards, the Padma Shri, and two honorary doctorate degrees stand as proof of his acting excellence and mass fan following.
Some of his popular movies include 'New Delhi', 'Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha', 'Oru CBI Diary Kurippu', 'Kutty Srank' and 'Bheeshma Parvam'.
He has worked with critically acclaimed directors including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, K G George, and T V Chandran, as well as hit-makers like I V Sasi, Joshi, Ranjith, and Anwar Rasheed.
His debut was the 1971 movie 'Anubhavangal Paalichakal'.
Alappuzha (Kerala) | Environmentalist Kollakkayil Devaki Amma, who has been conferred the Padma Shri, on Sunday said she sees the honour as recognition from God for the work she has done.
Speaking to reporters here after the announcement of the Padma awards, Devaki Amma said the award was bestowed by God.
"First, I have to thank Bhoomi Devi (the Earth goddess). My children and grandchildren have always supported me," she said.
A native of Puthiyavila in Kandalloor panchayat, near Kayamkulam, here Devaki Amma has transformed her 4.5 acres of land into a forest by planting more than 3,000 plants and trees over the years.
The green cover, known as ‘Tapovanam’, is home to several rare and endangered species of trees and plants.
She said she planted whatever saplings she could find from different places.
"Even I do not know all the plants here. Often, people searching for rare plants come and tell me that they have found endangered species of trees and plants here," she said.
At 92, Devaki Amma continues to take classes for students who visit Tapovanam.
She began planting saplings more than 40 years ago, following a serious car accident in 1980, which marked a turning point in her life.
In 2018, the union government honoured her with the Nari Shakti Puraskar, which was presented by then President Ram Nath Kovind.
Thiruvananthapuram | Vimala Menon, who was conferred the Padma Shri on Sunday, said she considers herself fortunate to receive the recognition and credited her disciples for the honour.
An alumna of Kerala Kalamandalam, Menon is known for her contributions to Mohiniyattam, Kerala’s classical dance form.
"I consider it a moment of great fortune, especially as I received the Kerala Sree Award from the state government last year. I am 84 years old and have 63 years of experience in the field of dance," she told a television news channel.
Asked whether she had expected the Padma Shri, Menon said people often told her every year that she would receive the award.
"But I never took any initiative, as I believe in the value of honours that come through the recommendation of others," she said.
She said the recognition brings greater responsibility and added that her priority has always been Mohiniyattam.
"It is through my disciples that I began to be recognised. I believe my co-workers and disciples have contributed more than anything else to these honours," she said.
Menon has previously been honoured with the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards.
New Delhi | K Vijay Kumar, a former CRPF DG who headed the Tamil Nadu Police STF that killed forest brigand Veerappan, has been awarded the Padma Shri.
Kumar (74) is a 1975-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre. He retired from service in 2012.
The veteran cop is among the 113 recipients of the Padma Shri, the fourth in the series of India's civilian awards, given to persons who have rendered distinguished service.
"This is a tribute to all my teams with whom I have worked," Kumar told PTI when asked for his reaction.
A government citation said Kumar, now based in Bengaluru and Chennai, is renowned for his expertise in jungle warfare and counter-insurgency, and he is being awarded for being a "key architect" of strategic policing and major operations against Naxals and Veerappan.
Kumar, who was serving as the director of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad, was brought to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in 2010 by the then UPA government after the paramilitary force suffered its worst Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh that year.
A total of 75 CRPF personnel and a state police jawan were killed in a deadly ambush at Tadmetla in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on April 6, 2010.
Maoist leader Kishenji was killed in November 2011 by the commandos of the CRPF's CoBRA unit in West Bengal, when Kumar was the director general of the force.
Kumar retired from service in 2012 as the CRPF DG. He was later appointed as a security adviser with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Kumar also served as an advisor to the Jammu and Kashmir governor, before being re-appointed as a senior security advisor in the MHA in 2019.
The veteran cop had also served as the chief of the Special Task Force (STF) of the Tamil Nadu Police that hunted down Veerappan, apart from being the Chennai police commissioner and the BSF inspector general in Kashmir.
Veerappan was killed in 2004 in a meticulously-planned operation called "Cocoon", led by Kumar, who wrote a book on the operation named "Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand".
New Delhi | Late TT Jagannathan, popularly known as 'Kitchen Mogul', of TTK Prestige Group, has been awarded Padma Shri posthumously.
Jagannathan, who died in October last year, has been awarded the civilian honour in trade and industry category in recognition for his contribution in the sector.
He invented the GRS safety mechanism for pressure cookers, exported Indian cookware globally and headed the renowned TTK Prestige Group for decades.
Besides, he made significant contributions to healthcare, sanitation and education, a government statement said on Sunday.
He was the chairman emeritus of TTK Prestige when he died at the age of 77.
A man who was on the board of TTK Prestige for 50 years, Jagannathan made the Prestige pressure cooker brand a household name in India. He had played a key role in turning around the TTK Group and making it debt-free.
Later on, he led expansion of Prestige from being just a pressure cooker maker to become a full-service kitchen solutions brand ranging from spanning cookware and electrical appliances, among others.
Jagannathan also authored the popular book 'Disrupt And Conquer - How TTK Prestige Became A Billion Dollar Company'.
Not just in the domestic market, Prestige expanded in global markets such as the US and the UK under his watch.
A gold medallist from IIT Madras and a PhD in operations from Cornell University, USA, Jagannathan was a man who loved to cook and had remarked that his need to innovate always began in the kitchen.