CHENNAI: Film star S Ajith Kumar, recently-retired Indian cricketer R Ashwin and industrialist Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti were among the 13 from Tamil Nadu - second highest among all states - who were recipients of Padma awards for 2025 announced by the union government on Saturday.
Apart from Ajith and Kuppuswami Chetti, well known actor-danseuse Shobana will be Padma Bhushan awardees, while dairy entrepreneur RG Chandramogan, popular chef K Damodaran, journalist-editor Lakshmipathy Ramasubbaiyer and Parai artiste Velu Aasan along with Ashwin are among the 11 Padmashri awardees.
Ajith debuted in 1993 with the film ‘Amaravathi’ and went on to star in around 60 films in Tamil before branching out to a career in motorsports. Recently in Dubai, his ‘Ajith Kumar Racing’ competed in the 911 GT3 R category and finished third. Ravichandran Ashwin has played around 287 matches for India before retiring recently as India’s second-highest wicket-taker with 765 wickets. Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti is popular as a textile industrialist and is also a philanthropist and leading figure in the arts and culture sphere in Tamil Nadu. Chandramogan is the chairman of dairy major Hatsun Agro Products and is a native of Virudhunagar district.
The other Padma Shri awardees are Mridangam exponent Guruvayur Dorai, professor MD Srinivas, a theoretical physics expert, therukoothu performer Purusai Kanappa Sambandan whose family has saved the art form from extinction, sculptor Radhakrishnan Devasenapathy and scholar-researcher Seeni Viswanathan known for his work in collating poet Subramania Bharati’s writings.