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The Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowships and awards for the year 2004 will be presented by the Hon’ble President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam at a special ceremony tomorrow at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
The Akademi fellowship (Akademi Ratna), considered the highest national honour, is restricted to 30 living persons at any given point of time. This time it will be conferred to six eminent personalities, namely, Smt. Zohra Segal, Sh. Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Smt. Annapurna Devi, Sh. Tapas Sen, Smt. Chandralekha and Smt. Bidhyabasini Devi.
The Akademi award is the most coveted honour conferred on the practicing artistes and scholars in the field of the performing arts. The fellowships and awards are decided by Akademi’s General Council, the apex body consisting of specialists in different fields of performing arts and representatives from different States and Union Territories of the country. The Akademi fellowships and awards carry purse money of Rs. 50,000./- in cash, a Tamrapatra and a Shawl.
Akademi awards will be presented to 34 personalities. Of these, ten are from the field of music, seven from theatre, eight each from classical dance and traditional/folk/tribal dance/music/puppetry. One artiste will be awarded for overall contribution to performing arts. Those to be given Akademi awards include, S/Shri Balwant Rai Bhatt, Tejpal Singh & Surinder Singh (Singh Bandhu), Suresh Talwalkar, Aashish Khan, Tiruvengadu A. Jayaraman, Madras A. Kannan, Prapancham Sita Ram and Smt. C. Saroja & C. Lalitha (Bombay Sisters) in Music Category; S/Shri Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody, Durllav Chandra Singh, Pasumarthi Seetha Ramiah, Shashadhar Acharya, Jatin Goswami, Smt. Nirmala Ramachandran, Smt. Kalamandalam Sugandhi and Sushri Saswati Sen in Dance Category; S/Shri Swadesh Deepak; Indira Parthasarathy, Lokendra Arambam, Raj Bisaria, Ramcharan Nirmalkar, Smt. Rohini Hattangady and Smt. Anuradha Kapur in Theatre Category; S/Shri Hans Raj Hans, Naren Gurung, C.N. Rama Chakkiar, John Lalhluna, Satyaram Reang, Maguni Charan Kuanr, Kanhai Lal Maharana and Smt. N. Ibemni Devi in Traditional/Folk/Tribal Dance/Music/Theatre and Puppetry Category and Shri S. K. Saxena in Overall Contribution/Scholarship to Performing Arts Category.
Sangeet Natak Akademi was set up in 1952 as the apex body in the country for the task of promotion and preservation of the performing arts of the country. One of the important achievement of the Akademi is to give recognition and honours to artists for setting standard of excellence in performing arts and restoring the art and artists to their rightful place in the country.
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