The multi-talented Siddharth is an actor, writer, producer and singer. He started out assisting acclaimed director Mani Ratnam and made his screen debut in 2003 Tamil film Boys.

His resume includes films in both Tamil and Telugu and he made his Hindi-language debut in 2006 Bollywood hit Rang De Basanti.

Last seen in January's Aranmanai 2, Siddharth was very involved in providing relief to flood-affected areas in Tamil Nadu last year.

As Special Officer for Chennai's worst-affected Tambaram area, Amudha Periyasamy cracked down on the encroachments along the river Adyar soon after thousands of homes were submerged in flood waters. Amudha oversaw the removal of encroachments to restore the river to its original width so it could carry more waters soon after the first spell of rain in November. But for this, the devastation would have been even worse when a massive amount of water was released later into the river. Amudha personally coordinated the rescue of around 3,000 families along with the Navy and disaster force personnel.

Record rain in R Gajalakshmi's district Kancheepuram left six lakh houses submerged in flood waters up to 12 feet high. Almost 15 lakh people were affected. Taking control, Ms Gajalakshmi broke protocol and directly asked for helicopters to airlift stranded people including newborn babies, hostel girls and pregnant women. The officer and her team was present with boats and ropes for a midnight rescue of hundreds trapped in a locality. For her outstanding service during the Chennai flood crisis, Ms Gajalakshmi became the "people's collector".

Gagandeep Singh Bedi was the go-to officer in Cuddalore, one of the worst-affected areas in Tamil Nadu during the floods. He supervised the desilting of canals, the plugging of around 700 breaches in lakes and rivers and the replacement of 2,000 km of power cables to help hundreds of villagers. Nearly 70,000 people were in relief shelters during the crisis. Mr Bedi oversaw around 4,000 health camps, which helped prevent the outbreak of diseases. He also initiated a community FM radio to inform people about flood alerts and raise awareness on disaster preparedness.

A pavement in Chennai is their home. They had nothing to give, but that didn't stop V Ashok, 14, R Arjun, 10, and M Arumugam, 8, from contributing to flood relief efforts.

As volunteers at The Hindu's Group's Flood Relief Camp, they worked 10 hours daily for 20 days, helping to load and unload, unpack and repack, and clean.

Older volunteers nicknamed the boys "Kaka Muttai" after an award-winning Tamil film featuring two boys in a Chennai slum.