Kangana Ranaut was pipped by Sania Mirza & Saina Nehwal for the Padma

NEW DELHI: Two-time national award winner for best actress Kangana Ranaut, cricketers Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan, playback singer Suman Kalyanpur and ghazal maestros Talat Aziz and Chandan Dass were recommended for Padma Awards, 2016 by the search committee but failed to make it to the final list.
Ranaut won the national award for best actress in a row in 2015 and 2016 for 'Queen' and 'Tanu Weds Manu Returns' respectively. She had in 2010 also won the national award for best supporting actress for her performance in 'Fashion'.



Not all names recommended by the Padma Awards search committee show up in the final list, released each year on Republic Day eve.

The recommendations, as finalized by the search committee, are forwarded to the Prime Minister's Office, which may make further changes as it deems appropriate.

Among the other names that were recommended by the search committee were also that of wrestler Sushil Kumar, Defence Research and Development Organization scientist K D Nayak, scientist and former secretary for earth sciences Shailesh Nayak, ex-ICAR boss S Ayyapan, nuclear scientist Ratan Kumar Sinha, film director K Raghvendra Rao (a big name in Telugu cinema) and Jamia Milia Islamia vice-chancellor Prof Talat Ahmad.



Though these names did not show up in the final Padma list, three big recommendations that made the cut were tennis star Sania Mirza, badminton player Saina Nehwal and archer Deepika Kumari.

As many as 112 eminent persons were conferred the Padma awards this year. These included 10 Padma Vibhushan, 19 Padma Bhushan.