MUMBAI: The year has started off well for actor Aamir Khan. First his film 3 Idiots that released on 24 December, 2009 has been the highest grossing film of 2009, then he bagged one of the biggest endorsement deals with Ethisalat and now he has been awarded with the Padma Bhushan Award for his outstanding contribution to Hindi cinema.

This year there are a total of 130 awardees, out of which 6 are Padma Vibhushan, 43 Padma Bhushan, and 81 Padma Shri.

Besides Aamir, the others from the film fraternity who have been awarded the Padma awards are; yesteryear actress Zohra Sehgal who has been awarded with the Padma Vibhushan, AR Rahman and Ilayaraja have been awarded the Padma Bhushan while Rekha, Saif Ali Khan, Resul Pokutty and Arundhati Nag have been awarded the Padma Shri Award.