Posts like 'Honouring Dilip Kumar is honouring Bollywood', 'He deserves Bharat Ratna. Period' and 'Bharat Ratna....most certainly. He is an icon in the truest sense of the word!' are splashed on the online community's website.
Celebrities supporting the cause include actors like Rajeev Khandelwal, Mukul Dev, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Varun Badola, Randeep Hooda and Urvashi Dholakia. Film critic and filmmaker Khalid Mohammed, director Prabhakar Shukla and popular Bangladeshi singer Runa Laila have also joined the effort.
'Dilip Kumar is one of the finest actors in the Indian film industry. He did only 64 films in his career and is still regarded as the best. He is like Lata Mangeshkar, you won't get another Lata...Similarly, you won't get another Dilip Kumar. In the true sense, he is Bharat Ratna,' said Shukla, known for his film 'Gudiyaa'.
Till date no actor has received the Bharat Ratna award. In 1992, acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray was the first person from the entertainment industry to have been conferred the honour.
Music greats like Carnatic music vocalist M.S. Subbulakshmi, sitar player Ravi Shankar, singer Lata Mangeshkar, shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan and classical singer Bhimsen Joshi became its proud recipients.