Padma Bhushan Award For Bollywood Stars

Composers A.R. Rahman, who shone at the Oscars last year with his double golden statuette win, and Ilaiyaraaja have also been honoured with the Padma Bhushan on the eve of Republic Day.

Bollywood veteran Rekha, 55, has been conferred the Padma Shri, the fourth highest honour, after four decades in the Indian film industry.

Saif Ali Khan, Resul Pokutty, Arundhati Nag have also been awarded the Padma Shri.

The 44-year-old Aamir, who struck gold at the box office with his latest outing “3 Idiots” that grossed over Rs.375 crore at the worldwide box office, is already a recipient of the Padma Shri.

Known as a perfectionist, Aamir began his film career as a child actor in his uncle Nasir Hussain’s “Yaadon Ki Baraat” (1973) and then featured in “Madhosh” (1974).

He made his debut as full-fledged actor in Ketan Mehta’s “Holi” (1984) however, he achieved overnight stardom in 1988 with “Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak”.

He followed it up with his first national award winning role in “Raakh” and successful movies like “Dil” (1990), “Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin” (1991), “Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar” (1992), “Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke” (1993), “Andaz Apna Apna” (1994) and “Rangeela” (1995).

Khan continued to act in just one or two films a year and still does the same. Other hits of Aamir are “Raja Hindustani”, “Ishq” and critically-acclaimed “Ghulam”, “Sarfarosh” and “Earth”.

In the new millenium, he appeared in hits like Oscar-nominated “Lagaan”. In the same year he featured in “Dil Chahta Hai”. After that he took a four year sabbatical and returned with Ketan Mehta’s dud “Mangal Pandey: The Rising”.

But he hit the bull’s eye again with “Rang De Basanti” and after that blazed a new trail to success with “Taare Zameen Par”, “Ghajini” and “3 Idiots”.

Rahman, who started his career in 1992 with Mani Ratnam’s Tamil film “Roja”, made his debut in Bollywood with the hit soundtrack in Ram Gopal Varma’s blockbuster movie “Rangeela”.

Some of his hit numbers are “Chaiyyan Chaiyyan”, “Roobaroo”, “Tere bina”, “Jai ho” and “Masakali” and “Kabhi kabhi Aditi”.

In a career spanning almost two decades, Rahman who has his own music label called KM Music, achieved many milestones.

In 2008, Rahman scored the music of Danny Boyle’s rags-to-riches drama “Slumdog Millionaire” for which he won a Golden Globe. He also bagged two Oscars the same, becoming the first Indian citizen to do so.

Apart from the Oscars, Rahman has also been awarded with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award, four National Film Awards and 13 Filmfare awards.

The 44-year-old musician has also been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the results of which will be announced on Jan 31.

While Time magazine referred to him as the “Mozart of Madras”, in 2009, the magazine placed him in their 100 list of “World’s Most Influential People”.

Ilaiyaraaja has been a prominent composer in the southern film industry since 1976. He debuted with “Annakkili” and is known for integrating Tamil folk lyric with Western music. He won the Indian National Film Award thrice for the movies – “Sindhu Bhairavi”, “Rudraveena” and “Saagara Sangamam.

The daughter of late southern star Gemini Ganesan, Rekha bagged overnight success with her debut film and went on to become India’s sex symbol.

Rekha has acted in over 150 films and maintained versatility in films like “Do Anjaane” (1976), “Ghar” (1978), “Muqaddar Ka Sikander” (1978), “Khubsoorat” (1980), “Silsila” (1981), “Baseraa” (1981), “Utsav” (1984), “Khoon Bhari Maang” (1988), “Ijaazat” (1988), “Kama Sutra” (1996) and “Zubeidaa” (2001), et al.

It was Muzaffar Ali’s period drama “Umrao Jaan” that catapulted Rekha to unprecedented success and even won her a National Award.