The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for 2010 - 2011

December 17, 2011

The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi, at its meeting held on 13-14 December 2011 elected eleven eminent personalities in the field of performing arts, namely Mukund Lath, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Amjad Ali Khan, Umayalapuram Sivaraman, M.Chandrasekharan, R K Singhajit Singh, Kalamandalam Gopi, Padma Subrahmanyam, Chandrasekhar Kambar, and Heisnam Kanhailal as SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI FELLOWS (AKADEMI RATNA). The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and rare honour, which is restricted to a very limited number at a given time. Presently there are only 40 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

 
Hariprasad Chaurasia
 
Amjad Ali Khan
 
Heisnam Kanhailal
 
 
Umayalapuram Sivaraman
 
M.Chandrasekharan
 
Kalamandalam Gopi
 
 
Padma Subrahmanyam
 
Chandrasekhar Kambar
 
Shivkumar Sharma
 
The General Council of the Akademi also selected thirty six persons from the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry for the SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI AWARDS (AKADEMI PURASKAR) for the year 2011.

In the field of Dance, nine eminent practitioners, namely Narthaki Natraj (Bharatanatyam), Manjushree Chatterjee (Kathak), Thonnakkal Peethambaram (Kathakali), Priti Patel (Manipuri), Alekhya Punjala (Kuchipudi), Ramli Ibrahim (Odissi), V K Hymavathy (Mohiniattam), Tanusree Shankar (Creative & Experimental Dance) and Karaikudi Krishnamurthi (Music for Dance) have been selected for the Akademi Award 2011.

In the field of Music, nine eminent artists, namely Shruti Sadolikar Katkar and M Venkatesh Kumar for Hindustani Vocal music, Totaram Sharma (Pakhawaj) and Pushparaj Koshti (Surbahar) for Hindustani Instrumental music, J Venkataraman for Carnatic Vocal Music, E M Subramaniam (Ghatam), Ayyagari Syamasundaram (Veena) and Seshampatti T Sivalingam (Nagaswaram) for Carnatic Instrumental Music, and Gopal Chandra Panda (Odissi Music) for Other Major Traditions of Music have been selected for the Akademi Award 2011.

In the field of Theatre, eight eminent persons have been selected for Akademi Awards 2011. They include Alakhnandan and Kirti Jain for Direction, Amitabh Shrivastav, Vikram Gokhale, Neena Tiwana and A R Srinivasan for Acting, R Nageswara Rao (Babji) for Major Traditions of Theatre - Company Theatre, Andhra Pradesh and Kamal Jain for Allied Theatre Arts (Lighting).

For their contribution to Other Traditional /Folk / Tribal Music / Dance Theatre and Puppetry, eight artists have been selected for the Akademi Award. They are Trippekulam Achuta Marar for Traditional Music (Kerala), Hemant Chauhan for Folk Music (Gujarat), Gurmeet Bawa for Folk Music (Punjab), Kashiram Sahu for Folk Theatre (Chhatisgarh), Mipham Otsal for Traditional Theatre (Jammu & Kashmir), Bellagallu Veeranna for Togalu Gombeyatta, Puppetry (Karnataka), Gopal Chandra Das for Putul Nach (Tripura) and Kasmi Khan Niyazi for Making of musical Instrument (DeIhi).

Sundari Sridharani and Shrivats Goswami will receive the Akademi Award 2011 for Overall Contribution / Scholarship to Performing Arts.

The honour of Akademi Fellow has been conferred since 1954 and Akademi Award since 1952. They not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievements on a national basis, but also recognize sustained individual work and contribution to the practice and appreciation of the arts through performance, teaching and scholarship. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs. 3 lakhs and Akademi Awards carry Rs. 1 lakh besides Tamrapatra and Angavastram.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi has selected 33 artists of India up to the age of 40 years who have made a mark in their respective fields of performing arts for USTAD BISMILLAH KHAN YUVA PURASKAR 2010. The Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar was introduced in the year 2006 with the objective of giving national recognition to outstanding talents in diverse fields of performing arts. The names of the selected artists are as under:

Dance - 8 Puraskars
Praveen Kumar (Bharatanatyam), Pallabi De (Kathak), M Amaljith (Kathakali), Yeleswarapu
Srinivasulu (Kuchipudi), Arushi Mudgal (Odissi), Naren Barua (Sattriya), Madhu Natraj (Creative
Dance) and Yogesh Gangani (Music for Dance -Tabla for Kathak)

Music – 8 Puraskars
Manjusha Sandip Patil and Kaushiki Desikan for Hindustani Vocal Music; Suyog Kundalkar
(Harmonium) and Ashutosh Upadhyay (Pakhawaj) for Hindustani Instrumental Music; Savita
Narasimhan for Carnatic Vocal Music; Embar Kannan (Violin) and G Guruprasanna (Kanjira) for
Carnatic Instrumental Music; Alankar Singh for Other Major Traditions of Music - Gurbani of Punjab

Theatre - 8 Puraskars
Meeta Mishra and S Thaninleima for Direction; Anita Shabdeesh, Danish lqbal, Dakshina
Sharma and Bakija Begum for Acting; Rajesh K V (Lighting) for Allied Theatre Arts; Srikanth
Natarajan for Major Traditions of Theatre - Bhagavata Mela of Tamil Nadu

Other Traditional Folk / Tribal dance / Music, Theatre & Puppetry – 8 Puraskars
U Natrajan for Folk Dance (Tamil Nadu), Arti Kale Nagarkar for Lavani (Maharastra),
Ahongshangbam Priyarani Devi for Folk Music (Manipur), Fakira Khan for Folk Music (Rajasthan),
Manzoor Ul Haq for Soofiyana Kalam (Jammu and Kashmir), Kanjuram Salaam for Tribal Dance
(Chhattisgarh), Danish Hussain & Mehmood Farukke (Joint Puraskar for Dastangoi - Folk Narrative
(Uttar Pradesh), Hanumanthu Rao for Tolu Bommalatta (Puppetry of Andhra Pradesh)

Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar carries a purse money of Rupees twenty five thousand only. The Yuva Puraskar will be presented at a special ceremony, presided over by the Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi in the coming months.

As a part of the ongoing commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Sangeet Natak Akademi decided to institute a one-time honour of TAGORE SAMMAN to be awarded to 100 persons of the age of 75 years and above who have made significant contribution in the field of performing arts. The proposal of the Akademi was approved by the National Implementation Committee headed by Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Finance, and the Ministry of Culture. It was further agreed that out of 100 Sammans, 50 may be at par with the Akademi Fellow (with purse money of Rs 3 lakhs) and remaining 50 Sammans at par with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (with purse money of Rs 1 lakh). The General Council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi at its meeting held on 13- 14 December 201 1 at New Delhi unanimously elected fifty eminent personalities in the field of performing arts as TAGORE AKADEMI RATNA and selected fifty personalities for TAGORE AKADEMI PURASKAR. Some of the awardees are:

TAGORE AKADEMI RATNA: M Nagabhushana Sarma, Ram Narayan, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, Vyjayanthimala Bali, Kalanidhi Narayanan, M K Saroja, Kumudini Lakhia, Mankompu Sivasankara Pillai, Mayadhar Raut, Pasumarthy Venugopala Krishna Sarma, Maya Rao, Amala Shankar

TAGORE AKADEMI PURASKAR (for dance):
Pandanallur Swaminathan Pillai – Bharatanatyam, N.S. Jayalakshmi – Bharatanatyam,Rajee Narayan – Bharatanatyam, Chemencerri Kuniraman Nair – Kathakali, Nattuvan Paramasiva Menon – Kathakali, Devjani Chaliha – Manipuri, Bhagavatula Yagna Narayan Sarma – Kuchipudi, Rita Devi – Odissi, Haricharan Saikia – Sattriya, Patrayani Sangeetha Rao - Music for Dance, Bhagavatula Seetarama Sarma - Music for Dance

OVERALL CONTRIBUTION / SCHOLARSHIP IN PERFORMING ARTS
M L Varad Pande, B M Sundaram, Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere, Raja Mrigendra Singh, Neelamadhab Panigrahi


Comments

Apropos to The Hindu announcement of the Sangeet Natak Akademi awards, it is regrettable that the names of Kamala (Bharatanaatyam) and Balamuralikrishna (Carnatic music)  are not included in the Tagore Academy Ratna award.  Both are above 75 years and no one can deny their immense contribution to the respective fields both of them serve. Omission could be by oversight which can be rectified even now.   
- VP Dhananjayan
(Dec 21, 2011)