MUMBAI: The ‘Padm Shri’ award will be conferred to six media personalities this year.
Among the winners of the ‘Padma Shri’ are CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai along with NDTV’s managing editor, Barkha Dutt and Vinod Dua from the news channels.
Bollywood actor Madhuri Dixit, actor Tom Alter and Hollywood film maker Manoj Night Shyamalan are also on the list.
Rajdeep Sardesai, who entered television journalism in 1994 as political editor of NDTV, was the host of the award-winning talk show The Big Fight, and was particularly appreciated for his coverage of the Gujarat riots. Sardesai has been bestowed with many prizes for journalism including ‘C H Mohammad Koya Journalism Award’ -2007 and ‘Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards’ for 2006-07.
Barkha Dutt has won over 20 international and national awards, including the Commonwealth Broadcasters Award 2002, the ‘Global Leader of Tomorrow Award’ from the World Economic Forum in 2001, and the ‘Broadcast Journalist of the Year’ award from the Indian Express, in 2005.
Vinod Dua has been a prominent face of television for over three decades, known for his distinctive style and informal manner. He has been a producer and anchor for a wide range of programmes, which covered election analysis, political commentaries, documentaries and features. Dua has earlier received the ‘B D Goenka award for excellence in journalism’.
Madhuri Dixit is one of the biggest stars of the Indian film industry. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, she dominated Hindi cinema as a leading actress, appearing in many hit films like Tezaab in 1988 Ram Lakhan, Parinda and Tridev in 1989, Dil in 1990, Saajan in 1991, Beta in 1992, Khalnayak in 1993, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun in 1994 and Raja in 1995.
Tom Alter is an Indian actor of American origin. He has worked for Satyajit Ray in Shatranj Ke Khiladi and Ismail Merchant. In Sardar, the 1993 film biography of Sardar Patel, Alter portrayed ‘Lord Mountbatten’. He has also played sadistic mob lord Keshav Kalsi in long running series Junoon on Doordarshan .
M. Night Shyamalan is best known for his work on the movies The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village.
Meanwhile, the government has decided not to confer highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna to any politician this year.
For the past six years, the award has not being given to anyone.
