DECLARATION OF SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI FELLOWSHIPS (AKADEMI RATNA) AND AKADEMI AWARDS (AKADEMI PURASKAR)
FOR THE YEAR 2010

The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi at its meeting held on 19 January 2011 elected two (2) eminent personalities in the field of performing arts, namely Girija Devi and Nataraj Ramakrishna 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 34 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

The General Council of the Akademi also selected thirty eight (38) persons from the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2010.

In the field of Music, nine eminent artists, namely Chhannu Lal Mishra and Yashpal for Hindustani Vocal Music, Budhaditya Mukherjee (Sitar) and Nityanand Haldipur (Flute) for Hindustani Instrumental Music, Suguna Purushothaman and Mysore Nagamani Srinath for Carnatic Vocal Music, Nagai R Muralidharan (Violin) and Srimushnam V Raja Rao (Mridangam) for Carnatic Instrumental Music, and M V Simhachala Sastry (Harikatha) for Other Major Traditions of Music have been selected for the Akademi Award 2010.

In the field of Dance, nine eminent practitioners, namely Malabika Mitra (Kathak), Kalamandalam K.G. Vasudevan (Kathakali), Phanjoubam Iboton Singh (Manipuri), Ratna Kumar (Kuchipudi), Aruna Mohanty (Odissi), Manik Borbayan (Sattriya), Uttara Asha Coorlawala (Creative & Experimental Dance), Kalamandalam Painkulam Rama Chakyar (Other Major Traditions of Dance & Dance Theatre – Kutiyattam) and S Rajeshwari (Music for Dance - Bharatanatyam) have been selected for the Akademi Award 2010.

In the field of Theatre, eight eminent persons have been selected for Akademi Awards 2010. They include D Vizai Bhaskar (Telugu) and Atamjeet Singh (Punjabi) for Playwriting, Veenapani Chawla and Urmil Kumar Thapaliyal for Direction and Dilip Prabhavalkar, Banwari Taneja, Maya Krishna Rao and Swatilekha Sengupta for Acting.

For their contribution to Other Traditional/Folk/ Tribal Music/ Dance/ Theatre and Puppetry, ten artists have been selected for the Akademi Award. They are Harbhajan Singh Namdhari for Gurbani Kirtan (Punjab), Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi & Naseer Ahmed Khan Warsi (Joint Award) for Qawwali (Andhra Pradesh), Dwijen Mukherjee for Rabindra Sangeet (West Bengal), T Somasundaram for Folk Dance (Tamil Nadu), Krishna Kumari for Folk Music- Bhakha (Jammu & Kashmir), Chanda Jagdish Tiwadi for Folk Theatre - Bharud (Maharashtra), K Chinna Anjannamma for Tolu Bommalata – Shadow Puppetry (Andhra Pradesh), and K V Ramakrishnan & K C Ramakrishnan (Joint Award) for Pava Kathakali – Glove Puppetry (Kerala).

Ashok D. Ranade will receive the Akademi Award 2010 for Scholarship in Performing Arts (Music) and Jaidev Taneja will receive the Award for Overall Contribution to Performing Arts (Theatre).