Sangeet Natak Akademi announces winners

Artists often need encouragement that helps them excel in their field of work. To encourage them further, Sangeet Natak Akademi elected one eminent personality as Sangeet Natak Akademi fellow (Akademi Ratna) and selected 43 artists from different fields for the Sangeet Natak Akademi awards.

C V Chandrasekhar was selected as Akademi Ratna in the presence of the General Council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama during a meeting held on April 20 in Agartala. The Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and awards will be conferred by the President of India. 

The honour of Akademi fellow is conferred since 1954 and Akademi awards are being given to artists since 1952. These honours not only symbolise the highest standard of excellence and achievements, but also recognise sustained individual work and contribution. 

The Akademi fellow gets a purse money of Rs three lakh and Akademi award winner gets Rs one lakh, besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram. 

The 43 artists have been selected from the fields of music, dance, theatre, puppetry and overall contribution in performing arts for the Akademi Puraskar for the year 2015. Out of these 43 awards, two joint awards will be given.

In the field of Music, eleven eminent artists, such as Krishna Bisht, Mashkoor Ali Khan for Hindustani vocal music; Kartik Kumar for Hindustani instrumental Music–Sitar; Brij Narayan for Hindustani instrumental music–Sarod; R N Thyagarajan and R N Tharanathan (joint award); Suguna Varadhachari for Carnatic vocal music; Lalgudi G J R Krishnan for Carnatic instrumental music–Violin; Mambalam M K S Siva for Carnatic instrumental music-Nagaswaram; Bhupinder Singh, Hridyanath Mangeshkar and Prafulla Kar for other major traditions of music–Sugam Sangeet, have been selected for the Akademi awards 2015. 

In the field of dance, nine eminent artists have been selected for the Akademi awards 2015, such as Ranganayaki Jayaraman for Bharatanatyam; K Kunhiraman Nair for Kathakali; G Padmaja Reddy for Kuchipudi Dance; Aloka Kanungo for Odissi dance; Sharodi Saikia for Sattriya dance; Mandakini Trivedi for Mohiniattam; Sadashiva Pradhan for Chhau dance; W Lokendrajit Singh for contemporary/experimental dance and Rajkumar Bharathi for dance. 

In the field of theatre, nine eminent persons have been selected for Akademi awards 2015 such as Nand Kishore Acharya, Shafaat Khan for playwriting; Parvez Akhtar, Mushtaq Kak for direction; Manoj N Joshi, Himani Shivpuri for acting; Pradeep Mulye for allied theatre arts–scenic design; Sarojini Nangiar for other major traditions of theatre–Kutiyattam and Rani Balbir Kaur for overall contribution in theatre. 

In the field of traditional, folk, tribal— music, dance, theatre and puppetry,  ten artistes have been selected for Akademi awards 2015 such as Khuman Lal Saav (folk music of Chhattisgarh), Ramchandra Singh (folk theatre of Bihar), Khem Raj (folk music of Jammu and Kashmir),  S R D Prasad (martial art of Kerala), Chhaya and Maya Khutegaonkar (joint award for folk dance of Maharashtra-Lavani), Gangmei Aluna Kabuini (traditional dance and music of Manipur), Paramjit Singh Sidhu (folk music of Punjab), Sayeed Sabri Jaipuri (qawwali, Rajasthan),  K K Ramachandra Pulavar and T N Sankaranathan for puppetry.

Shanta Gokhale and Chaman Lal Ahuja have been selected for the Akademi Awards 2015 in the field of Overall Contribution/Scholarship to performing arts.