Tamil Nadu has reaped a harvest of nine Padma awards this year with art and cinema bagging four of them. Last year, six from the state got the awards.

Actor Kamal Haasan, ghatam player T H Vinayakaram (Vikku) and lyricist Vairamuthu bagged the Padma Bhushan award. Kamal gets his second Padma award 24 years after he was given the Padma Shri in 1990. This is the second Padma award for Vinayakaram and Vairamuthu after they received the Padma Shri in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

This time six people from TN have got the Padma Shri awardees. They are Mallika Srinivasan (chief of Tafe group), Dr T P Jacob (vascular surgeon), Santosh Sivan (cinematographer and film director), Ajay Kumar Parida (MSSRF), Prof Hakim Syed (Unnani) and Dipika Pallikal (squash).

"Proud to be an Indian," Kamal said. "India is a country with great talents in various fields. While legions await to be honoured, I am honoured that I have been chosen for Padma Bhushan by my government. I think it is sheer chance and my good fortune that I have been chosen. I hope I would live long to do more to deserve this award. This would be an impetus for me to do more good work, perhaps only then would I deserve it. My congratulations other Padma Bhushan awardees, especially my friend Vairamuthu."

Haasan has starred in over 200 films in multiple languages in over five decades. He is known for films such as 'Moondram Pirai', 'Nayagan', 'Pushpak', 'Virumaandi' and 'Anbe Sivam'.

He has won three National awards and 19 Filmfare awards. In 1990, he also received the Padma Shri

Mallika Srinivasan said the award is a great pride. "I accept it with humility. This will motivate us in Tafe to do more for Indian farmers in the coming days," she told us. Ajay Kumar Parida is the executive director of MSSRF. "The award is a recognition of me and the team's services at MSSRF. I am proud to be part of the team and it is an award for us all at the foundation," said Parida.

Dipika Pallikal thanked the government for recognizing her talent. "Last year has been a fruitful one for me and come February rankings, I hope to find myself ranked world No 10," Pallikal told KI.

For the fourth year in a row, no one from the state got the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award. The last person to get the award was Umayalpuram Sivaraman (mridangam artist) in 2010.