Sangeet Natak Akademi announces fellowships, awards
16 Jul 2019
The General Council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi at its meeting held on 26 June 2019 at Guwahati, Assam unanimously elected four eminent personalities in the field of performing arts, namely, Zakir Hussain, Sonal Mansingh, Jatin Goswami and K Kalyanasundaram Pillai, for Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow (Akademi Ratna).
The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and rare honor, which is restricted to 40 numbers at any given time. The election of above four fellows takes the number of Fellows of Sangeet Natak Akademi to 40.
The General Council also selected 44 artists from the field of music, dance, theatre, traditional/folk/tribal music/dance/theatre, puppetry and overall contribution/scholarship in the performing arts for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2018. These 44 artists include three joint awardees.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards will be conferred by the President of India at a special investiture ceremony.
In the field of music, eleven eminent artists have been chosen. They include:
- Mani Prasad - Hindustani Vocal
- Madhup Mudgal - Hindustani Vocal
- Tarun Bhattacharya - Hindustani Instrumental (Santoor)
- Tejendra Narayan Majumdar - Hindustani Instrumental (Sarod)
- Alamelu Mani - Carnatic Vocal
- Malladi Suribabu – Carnatic Vocal
- S Kasim and S Babu (Joint Award) - Carnatic Instrumental (Nagaswaram)
- Ganesh and Kumaresh (Joint Award) - Carnatic Instrumental (Violin)
- Suresh Wadkar - Other Major Traditions of Music (Sugam Sangeet)
- Shanti Hiranand - Other Major Traditions of Music (Sugam Sangeet)
- H Ashangbi Devi - Other Major Traditions of Music (Nata Sankirtana. Manipur).
In the field of dance, nine eminent artists have been selected for the Akademi Awards 2018. They include:
- Radha Sridhar - Bharatanatyam
- Ishira and Maulik Shah (Joint Award) – Kathak
- Akham Lakshmi Devi – Manipuri
- Pasumurthy Ramalinga Sastry – Kuchipudi
- Surupa Sen – Odissi
- Tankeswar Hazarika Borbayan – Sattriya
- Gopika Varma – Mohiniattam
- Tapan Kumar Pattanayak – Chhau
- Deepak Mazumdar - Other Contemporary Dance
In the field of theatre, nine eminent artists have been selected for the Akademi Awards 2018. They include:
- Rajiv Naik – Playwriting
- Laltluangliana Khiangte – Playwriting
- Sanjay Upadhyay – Direction
- S Raghunandana – Direction
- Suhas Joshi – Acting
- Teekam Joshi – Acting
- Swapan Nandy – Mime
- Bhagawat AS Nanjappa – Other Major Traditions of Theatre – Yakshagana
- A M Parameswaran Kuttan Chakkiyar – Other Major Traditions of Theatre – Kutiyattam.
In the field of traditional/folk/tribal music/dance/theatre and puppetry, ten artists have been selected for the Akademi Awards 2018. They include:
- Malini Awasthi - Folk Music (Uttar Pradesh)
- Gazi Khan Barna - Folk Music (Rajasthan)
- Narendar Singh Negi - Folk Song (Uttrakhand)
- Mohd Sadiq Bhagat - Folk Theatre (Bhand Pather) J&K
- Kota Sachidanand Shastry – Harikatha (Andhra Pradesh)
- Arjun Singh Dhruve - Folk Dance (Madhya Pradesh)
- Somnath Battu - Folk Music (Himachal Pradesh)
- Anupama Hoskere – Puppetry-String (Karnataka)
- Hem Chandra Goswami - Mask Making (Assam).
Diwan Singh Bajeli and Puru Dadhich have been selected for the Akademi Award 2018 in the field of Overall Contribution/Scholarship in the Performing Arts.
The honour of Akademi Award has been conferred since 1952. These honours not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievements, but also recognise sustained individual work and contribution. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs3,00,000 and Akademi Award carries prize money of Rs1,00,000, besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram.