New Delhi: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Prince Karim Aga Khan were among the eminent personalities awarded the Padma Vibhushan, country’s second highest civilian honour, by President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday.
Besides them, senior Supreme Court advocate Kottayan K Venugopal and D Veerendra Heggade of the famous Dharmasthala Jain temple in Karnataka were also conferred the Padma Vibhushan.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were among the prominent dignitaries present during the event.
Amitabh’s son Abhishek Bachchan, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and daughter Shweta Nanda were also present at the ceremony.
The Padma awards were announced on the evening of Republic Day this year. It included nine Padma Vibhushan, 20 Padma Bhushan and 75 Padma Shri.
17 recipients were women and as many in the categories of foreigners, NRIs and PIOs while there were four posthumous awardees.
