Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships:
The Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship or ‘Akademi Ratna Sadasya’ is the most prestigious and rare honour and is restricted to 40 individuals at any given time. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs.3 lakhs. The fellowship was established in 1954 and the first elected fellows were Carnatic music vocalist Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Veena player Karaikudi Sambasiva Aiyer, and film and theatre actor Prithviraj Kapoor.
Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships 2018: The General Council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi elected elected four eminent personalities in the field of performing arts namely, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, dancer Jatin Goswami and scientist K.Kalyanasundaram Pillai as Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows for 2018.
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards:
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are bing conferred since 1952 and represent the nation’s highest achievement in music, dance and drama. The Awards in Hindustani and Carnatic music were instituted as early as 1951, even before the Akademi was set up and these were known as Presidential Awards. With the formation of the Akademi, the Awards came to be known as Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards, and the investiture became the responsibility of the Akademi. The Presidential Awards for 1952 and 1953 were subsequently incorporated in the list of Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards. The Akademi Awards carries purse money of Rs 1.00 lakh in cash, a Tamrapatra and an Angavastram.
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2018:
For the year 2018, the General Council also selected forty-four (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 forty-four (44) artists include three joint awards.
In the field of Music, eleven eminent artists, namely 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 & S.Babu (Joint Award) – Carnatic Instrumental – Nagaswaram, Ganesh & 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, have been selected for the Akademi Awards 2018.
In the Field of Dance, nine eminent artists have been selected for the Akademi Awards 2018, namely, Radha Sridhar for Bharatanatyam, Ishira & Maulik Shah (Joint Award) for Kathak, Akham Lakshmi Devi for Manipuri, Pasumurthy Ramalinga Sastry for Kuchipudi, Surupa Sen for Odissi, Tankeswar Hazarika Borbayan for Sattriya, Gopika Varma for Mohiniattam, Tapan Kumar Pattanayak for Chhau, Deepak Mazumdar for Contemporary Dance.
In the field of Theatre, nine eminent artists have been selected for the Akademi Awards 2018, Rajiv Naik for Playwriting, Laltluangliana Khiangte for Playwriting, Sanjay Upadhyay for Direction, S.Raghunandana for Direction, Suhas Joshi for Acting, Teekam Joshi for Acting, Swapan Nandy for Mime, Bhagawat A.S.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 are Malini Awasthi, Folk Music, Uttar Pradesh, Gazi Khan Barna, Folk Music – Khartal, 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 and Scholarship in the Performing Arts.
Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar:
Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar is conferred upon artists below the age of 40 years with the objective of identifying and encouraging outstanding young talents in diverse fields of performing arts and giving them national recognition early in their life, so that they may work with greater commitment and dedication in their chosen fields. Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar carries a purse money of Rs 25,000/-
Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2018:
The General Council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi selected 32 (including one joint Awards) artists of India who have made a mark as young talents in their respective fields of the performing arts for Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2018. The names of the selected artists are as under:
In the field of music, eight recipients of Yuva Puraskar are: Sameehan Kashalkar and Ruchira Kedar for Hindustani Vocal Music; Dhruv Bedi for Hindustani Instrumental Music–Sitar, Shubh Maharaj for Hindustani Instrumental – Tabla; Sandeep Narayan for Carnatic Vocal Music; J.B.Sruthi Sagar for Carnatic Instrumental Music–Flute; R.Sridhar for Carnatic Instrumental Music–Violin and M.D.Pallavi for Other Major Traditions of Music – Bhava Sangeet.
In the field of dance, eight recipients of Yuva Puraskar are: Vijna Rani Vasudevan & Rajith Babu (Joint Award) for Bharatanatyam; Durgesh Gangani for Kathak; Kalamandalam Vaisakh for Kathakali; Manju Elangbam for Manipuri; Madhulita Mohapatra for Odissi; Anjali Borbora Borthakur for Sattriya; Rakesh Sai Babu for Chhau and Vikram Mohan for Contemporary Dance.
In the field of theatre, seven recipients are: Chavan Pramod R for Direction; Namrata Sharma for Acting; Sunil Palwal for Acting; Preeti Jha Tiwari for Acting; Kuldeep Patgiri for Mime; Subhadeep Guha for Allied Theatre Arts – Music for Theatre; Kalamandalam Sajith Vijayan for Other Major Traditions of Theatre – Kutiyattam.
In the field of Traditional/Folk/Tribal Music/Dance/Theatre and Puppetry, eight recipients are: Chandan Tiwari, Folk Music-Bihar; Dinesh Kumar Jangde, Panthi Dance – Chattisgarh; Manoj Kumar Das, Traditional Music – Khol, Assam; Chandani Mansing Zala, Puppetry, Gujarat; A.Aneshori Devi, Traditional & Folk Music, Manipur; P.Rajkumar, Folk Dance, Tamilnadu; Madhushree Haital, Folk Music (Jhumar) – West Bengal; Ashok Kumar, Folk Music-Uttar Pradesh.