After Rajkumar, It's Vishnuvardhan's Photo On Postal Stamp

We all have seen Dr Rajkumar's photo on Postal Stamps, which was released by Indian Postal Department in 2009. After honouring the ace actor, now the department has honoured Dr Vishnuvardhan.

The department has included Vishnuvardhan stamp among the other 50 celebrities stamps, which will be released during the celebration of 100 years of Indian Cinema, Chennai.

It is said that Vishnuvardhan is the lone Kannada celebrity in a new set of stamps, which depicts the 50 iconic personalities of Indian Cinema. In early May, President Pranab Mukherjee had released 50 commemorative stamps, which has important celluloid personalities of Indian Cinema.

Sources said the first two sheets consist of nine stamps, each carrying pictures of winners of Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the other four sets have eight pictures each of famous film celebrities from across India.

Bollywood film industry dominates the list with 50 celebrities, followed by Bengali, Tamil and Telugu. Kannada and Malayalam audience expressed their unhappiness for representing only Vishnuvardhan and Prem Nazir, respectively.

Talking to a leading regional daily, President of Karnataka Rural Philatelic Association, MR Prabhakar cleared, "What can the department do when there is no proposal from people and organisations?"

"While governments, elected representatives and those of film bodies elsewhere have impressed upon the postal department to bring out stamps by sending proposals, there was no such concerted effort in the State," he added.

In 1989, Indian Postal department had also released the stamps of Bimal Roy, Mehaboob Khan, Sathyajit Ray and Madhubala to mark the 75 years of Indian Cinema Celebration.