MUMBAI: The entire film industry from Rajnikant to Kamal Hassan to our artistes like Aamir Khan, Kamal Haasan, Yash Chopra, Mamooty, Rakesh Roshan, Subhash Ghai, Chiranjeevi, Ramesh Sippy, and Mukesh Bhatt have endorsed a petition appealing that Bharat Ratna be conferred on actor Dilip Kumar. The initiative has been started by Mahesh Bhatt.

Bhatt said in a statement, "Dilip Kumar, the icon is as old as the Indian film industry. He is the symbol of secular India and has an unmatched career record spanning from pre-independence years till the last decade."

With a plan to involve millions of Dilip Kumar fans in the initiative, a Facebook community Dilip Kumar for Bharat Ratna has been launched. The community has till date as many as 1000 members till date with its ranks swelling by the day.

The Facebook community supporting the petition includes names like Rajeev Khandelwal, Priyanka Chopra, Kajol, Randeep Hooda, Salma Agha, Runa Laila, Mukul Dev and Khalid Mohammad.

Reads the web page of the community, "The people of India would like to send their fervent request to the Government of India to confer the prestigious Bharat Ratna, India‘s highest civilian honour, to the best actor in the country, Shri Dilip Kumar."

Dilip Kumar, popularly known as ‘Tragedy King of Bollywood‘, started his acting career with Jwar Bhata in 1944 and then went on to act in classics like Andaz (1949) Deedar (1951), Aan (1952), Devdas (1955), Mughal-E-Azam (1960), Ganga Jamuna (1961) and RamAur Shyam among many others.

In 1994, the Government of India awarded the senior actor with Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Not, only in India, Dilip Kumar is highly regarded in Pakistan too. In the year 1998, Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award of Pakistan was conferred upon the thespian.