On Thursday (September 11, 2025), the Karnataka Cabinet, the famous actors of the Kannada film world, Vishnuvardhan and B.K. Decided to award the ‘Karnataka Ratna’ award to Saroja Devi posthumously. Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.K. Patil told reporters in Bengaluru that a resolution in this regard was passed in the meeting that a letter was sent to the Center to request Bharat Ratna to Rashtrakavi Kuvempu. Patil said, “The cabinet today decided on Thursday (September 11) that Vishnuvardhan and Saroja Devi should be honored with the Karnataka Ratna.”

Vishnuvardhan and Saroja Devi have been multilingual artists

Born on 18 September in 1950, Vishnuvardhan acted in more than 220 films. His original name was Sampat Kumar. Vishnuvardhan, who received the title of ‘Pahari Singh’, also acted in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films and died on December 30, 2009.

At the same time, Saroja Devi was also a multilingual actress, who left her mark in films of South. He also made his mark on the Hindi film world with the film ‘Sasural’ with Rajendra Kumar. He is remembered for his lead role in the Kannada historical film ‘Kittur Rani Chennamma’. Saroja Devi was born on 7 January 1938 and died on 14 July 2025. He acted in more than 200 films.

In 2022, late actor Puneet Rajkumar received the Karnataka Ratna Award

Vishnuvardhan and Saroja Devi will be the 10th and 11th person to receive this prestigious Karnataka Ratna Award honor. Actor and former ministers Jayamala, actor Shruti and Malavika Avinash met Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday (September 9, 2025) and requested actor Vishnuvardhan and Saroja Devi to honor the Karnataka Ratna Award. The Karnataka Ratna Award was last awarded posthumously to late actor Puneet Rajkumar in 2022.

Special cabinet meeting will be called on Upper Bhadra irrigation project

Minister Patil said that the cabinet decided to call a special cabinet meeting on the Upper Bhadra irrigation project on 16 September. The project also includes acquisition of 75,000 acres of land. At the same time, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivkumar said on Wednesday (September 10, 2025) that the amount of compensation for the land acquired under the Upper Krishna Irrigation Project will be finalized in the cabinet meeting to be held on September 11.

Discussion was not completed in the meeting, a special meeting will be held on 16 September

However, Patil clarified that there are many technical and legal matters, which have to be resolved and will require discussion on them. Patil said, ‘In this background, the state cabinet discussed various points, but we could not complete the discussion. Therefore, there will be a special meeting on 16 September.

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