Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar announced

Art and culture needs encouragement as very few people are taking interest in various art forms, found in a culturally diverse nation like India. To appreciate the efforts of the ones who do take interest, National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture, government of India, which is also known as Sangeet Natak Akademi, recently announced Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for the year 2015. 

32 artists have been selected, who have made a mark as young talents in their respective fields of performing arts. Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar winners will be awarded with a prize money of Rs 25000 by the chairman of  Sangeet Natak Akademi in a special ceremony. 

The Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar is given to artistes below the age of 40 years and it was introduced in the year 2006 with the objective of identifying and encouraging outstanding young talents in diverse fields of performing arts. It would give them the national recognition early in their life, so that they may work with greater commitment and dedication in their chosen fields. 

In the field of music, eight recipients have received this award such as Rupesh Gawas and Brijeshwar Mukherjee for Hindustani vocal music; Anubrata Chatterjee for Hindustani instrumental music–Tabla; Smit Tiwari in Hindustani instrumental music–Sarod; Nisha Rajagopalan and Kunnakudi M Balamurali Krishna for Carnatic vocal music; R Shankaranarayanan for Carnatic instrumental music–Mridangam; and K V Gopalakrishnan for Carnatic instrumental music–Kanjira.

In the field of dance, there are eight recipients such as Shijith Nambiar and Parvathi Menon for Bharatanatyam; Vishal Krishna and Divya Dikshit for Kathak; Kalamandalam Thulasi for Kathakali; P Bilash Singh for Manipuri dance; Boby Chakraborty for Kuchipudi; Seujpriya Borthakur for Sattriya dance; and Shilpika Bordoloi for Contemporary/Experimental dance.

In the field of theatre, eight recipients are selected namely Abhishek Pandit and Chandra Shekhar Prasad for direction; Deep Mandeep Kaur, Sukumar Tudu and Deepalaxmi Moghe for acting; Navid Inamdar for allied theatre arts–scenic design; Gaurav Sharma for  allied theatre arts-lighting; and Ulesh Dasharath Khandare for allied theatre arts–make up.

In the field of traditional/folk/Tribal music/dance/theatre and puppetry, eight recipients are selected such as Hemu Alias Mahesh Krishna Gaude for folk music/dance, Goa; Shazia Bashir for folk music, Jammu and Kashmir; Prahlad Digambar Kadam for folk music, Maharashtra; Dhayanananda Panda for traditional/folk dance, Odisha; Mamta Joshi for folk music, Punjab; Bhugra Khan Manganiar for folk music, Rajasthan; R Raj Kumar for traditional/folk dance, Tamil Nadu and Choiti Ghosh for puppetry.