Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Lalit Kala Akademi awards for 2018, where 66 artists and performers received the accolades as well fellowships.
While conferring awards, Naidu said that it is our duty to preserve India’s culture and that he was happy that the number of awards have increased since they were initiated.
“Initially the awards, only four in number, were awarded for excellence in the fields of Hindustani and Carnatic music. Today the number of award categories has been increased to recognize and reward new developments in the artistic and cultural arena of the country. This is also reflective of our rich cultural diversity,” said Naidu.
Over 43 artistes were awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi awards while 23 were awarded the Lalit Kala Akademi Awards.
The Sangeet Natak Awards were given out in the categories of music, dance, and theatre. In addition, one category was reserved for traditional, folk, and tribal dance, music, theatre and puppetry. An award each was also given for overall contribution and scholarship in Performing Arts.
Additionally, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, Sattriya dancer Jatin Goswami, and as well as Sonal Mansingh and Thiruvidaimarudur Kuppiah Kalyanasundaram were given fellowships for their contribution to the field of dance.
Among the thirteen honoured for music are Hindustani vocalists Mani Prasad and Madhup Mudgal, santoor player Tarun Bhattacharya, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar for sarod, and Carnatic vocalists Alamelu Mani and Malladi Suribabu. Bharatanatyam dancer Radha Sridhar, Mohiniyattam dancer Gopika Varma, Kuchipudi dancer Ramalinga Sastry, are among the ten dancers who got the award.
Among the eight theatre artistes who have been conferred the award are Suhas Joshi and Teekam Joshi for acting, Rajiv Naik and Laltluangliana Khiangte for playwriting, and Sanjay Upadhyay for direction.
Musician Malini Awasthi (folk music), Gazi Khan Barna (folk music), Arjun Singh Dhurve (folk dance) Mohammad Sadiq Bhagat (folk theatre), Anupama Hoskere (string puppetry), Hem Chandra Goswami (mask making) are awardees in the other categories.
Sculptor Himmat Shah, reputed painters and artists Jyoti Bhatt and Shyam Sharma were awarded the prestigious Lalit kala Akademi fellowship.
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