The investiture ceremony of the Akademi Awards 2004 was held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 26 August 2005 and was presided over by the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presented the Akademi Fellowship and Akademi Awards in the presence of Shri S. Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Information & Broadcasting & Culture, Shri Ram Niwas Mirdha, Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Shri Kavalam Narayana Panikker, Vice Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Smt. Neena Ranjan, Secretary Culture. The presentation ceremony included Carnatic Vocal recital by Akademi Awardee Smt. C. Saroja & Smt. C. Lalitha (Bombay Sisters).

Fellows:
Zohra Segal, Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Annapurna Devi, Tapas Sen, Chandralekha, Bindhyabasini Devi.

Awardees:
Balwant Rai Bhatt (Hindustani Music – Vocal); Tejpal Singh & Surinder Singh, (Joint Awards for Hindustani Music – Vocal); Suresh Talwalkar (Hindustani Music – Instrumental (Tabla); Aashish Khan (Hindustani Music – Instrumental (Sarod); C. Saroja & C. Lalitha, (Joint Award for Carnatic Music – Vocal); Tiruvengadu A. Jayaraman (Carnatic Music – Vocal); Madras A. Kannan (Carnatic Music – Instrumental (Mridangam); Prapancham Sitaram (Carnatic Music – Instrumental (Flute); Nirmala Ramachandran (Bharatanatyam); Saswati Sen (Kathak); Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody
(Kathakali); Durllav Chandra Singh (Odissi); Pasumarthi Seetha Ramiah (Kuchipudi); Shashadhar Acharya (Chhau); Kalamandalam Sugandhi (Mohiniattam); Jatin Goswami (Sattriya); Swadesh Deepak (Playwriting – Hindi); Indira Parthasarathy (Playwriting – Tamil); Anuradha Kapur (Direction); Lokendra Arambam (Direction); Raj Bisaria (Direction); Rohini Hattangady (Acting); Ramcharan Nirmalkar (Acting); Hans Raj Hans (Folk Music – Punjab); Naren Gurung (Folk Music & Dance – Sikkim); Kidangoor Rama Chakyar (Kutiyattam – Kerala); John Lalhluna (Folk Music – Mizoram); N. Ibemni Devi (Khongjom Parba – Manipur); Satyaram Reang (Folk Dance & Music – Tripura); Maguni Charan Kuanr (Puppetry (Kandhei Nach – Orissa); Kanhailal Maharana (Mask-making (Seraikella Chhau) – Jharkhand); Sushil Kumar Saxena (Scholarship/Overall Contribution in Performing Arts)

The Awards Presentation Ceremony was followed by a week-long festival of music, dance and drama featuring some of the Awardees of the year. Festival programme follows:

Saturday 27 August 2005: Prapancham Sitaram (Flute); Madras A Kannan (Mridangam); Suresh Talwalkar (Tabla)

Sundary 28 August 2005: Zohra Segal (Poetry recitation); Naren Gurung (Folk Music & Dance – Sikkim); John Lalhluna (Folkk Music – Mizoram); Satyaram Reang (Folk Dance & Music – Tripura); Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody (Kathakali)

Monday 29 August 2005: Nirmala Ramachandran (Bharatanatyam); Kalamandalam Sugandhi (Mohiniattam); Shashadhar Acharya (Chhau)

Tuesday 30 August 2005: Jatin Goswami & disciples (Sattriya); Pasumarthi Seetha Ramiah and his disciple: Swapnasundari (Kuchipudi Bhamakalapam)

Wednesday 31 August 2005: Sharira, choreographic presentation by Chandralekha

Thursday 1 September 2005: Koyil, play in Tamil, written by Indira Parthasarathy and directed by V. Arumugum

Friday 2 September 2005: Aashish Khan (Sarod); Hans Raj Hans (Folk Music - Punjab)

Saturday 3 September 2005: Saswati Sen (Kathak)