President of India Confers Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for 2013

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for the year 2013 at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan today (April 11, 2014).

Three Fellowships (Akademi Ratna) were conferred on Dr Kanak Rele, Shri R. Sathyanarayana, and Shri Mahesh Elkunchwar. The Fellows received a purse of three lakh rupees, an angavastram and a tamrapatra.

Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 
In the field of music, nine eminent artists received the Akademi’s Awards: Shri Ritwik Sanyal and Smt Veena Hari Sahasrabuddhe for Hindustani Vocal Music; Shri Hashmat Ali Khan and Shri Dhruba Jyoti Ghosh for Hindustani Instrumental Music (Tabla and Sarangi respectively); Smt Aruna Sairam, Shri D. Sesha Chary and D Raghava Chary – the Hyderabad Brothers – for Carnatic Vocal Music; Shri Trichy Sankaran and Shri Thiruvizha Jayasankar for Carnatic Instrumental Music (Mridangam and Nadaswaram respectively) and Shri Bankim Sethi for Odissi Music.

Nine artists received the Awards of the Akademi in the field of dance: Smt. Jamuna Krishnan and Shri B. Herambanathan for Bharatanatyam; Smt. Rajashree Shirke for Kathak; Shri Kalamandalam M.P.S. Namboodiri for Kathakali; Shri Chinta Seetha Ramanjaneyulu for Kuchipudi; Smt Sangeeta Dash for Odissi; Shri Jogen Dutta Bayan for Sattriya dance; Shri Srinivasa Ranga Chariar for Arayer Sevai and Shri Dhaneswar Swain for Mardal drumming.

In the field of theatre, eight artists received the Akademi’s Awards: Shri Rameshwar Prem and Shri Pundalik Narayan Naik for Playwriting; Shri Kamalakar Muralidhar Sontakke, Shri Kewal Dhaliwal and Smt. Prasanna Ramaswamy for Direction; Shri Vasant Josalkar and Smt Kusum Haidar for Acting and Shri Krishna Arjun Borkar for Make-up.

Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 
Eight artists received the Akademi’s Awards for their work in Traditional, Folk and Tribal Dance, Music, Theatre and Puppetry: Smt. Raj Begum for Folk Music of Jammu and Kashmir; Shri T.A.R. Nadi Rao and Shri N. Jeeva Rao for Folk Music of Tamil Nadu; Shri Gurdial Singh for Instrument-making; Shri Mohan Singh Khangura for Rabindrasangeet; Shri Umakanta Bairagi for Tokari Geet and Dehbichar Geet of Assam; Smt Lilavati M. Kavi for Puppetry; Smt Meenakshi K. for Instrument-making (the Ghatam of Tamilnadu) and Shri Shaikh Riyajoddin Abdul Gani for Folk Theatre of Maharashtra.

Shri Mysore V. Subramanya and Shri N. Ramanathan will receive the Akademi’s Awards for their Overall Contribution and Scholarship in the Performing Arts.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardees received a purse of one lakh rupees, an angavastram and a tamrapatra.

This release issued at 1855 hrs