Actor Ajith Kumar received the Padma Bhushan award for distinguished service of high order to art at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. He received the award from President Droupadi Murmu in the presence of his family and several ministers from the Indian government, including PM Modi.
Ajith Kumar has a 32-year career in the film industry with 63 films under his belt. He made his debut with Amaravathi in 1992 and went on to star in films like Ullaasam, Vaalee, Amarkalam, Kandukondain Kandukondain, Dheena, Citizen, Villain, Billa, Mankatha, Arrambam, Veeram, Yennai Arindhal, and Nerkonda Paarvai. He also has appeared in the Tamil version of R Balki's English Vinglish in a cameo appearance alongside Sridevi. He also appeared as prince Susima alongside Shah Rukh Khan in Asoka, making it his only Hindi film credit.
His releases in 2025 are the road thriller Vidaamuyarchi and the action drama Good Bad Ugly. The former was directed by Magizh Thirumeni and also starred Trisha, Arjun and Regina Cassandra. The latter was directed by Adhik Ravichandran and reunited him with Trisha and Prabhu, with Prasanna and Arjun Das also starring.
Other awardees from the film industry include Nandamuri Balakrishna, Shekhar Kapur, Shobana, and Anant Nag, all receiving the Padma Bhushan.