On 23rd February 2023, Droupadi Murmu, President of India, presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna) and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2019, 2020 and 2021 in New Delhi, Delhi.
- 9 eminent personalities were given Akademi Ratna in the field of performing arts and a total of 128 artists from the field of music, dance, theatre, traditional, folk, and puppetry were given the Akademi Puraskar.
Key People:
i. Kishan Reddy Union Minister for Minister of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region(MoDoNER), Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State(MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs & Culture, Uma Nadnuri, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture and Dr Sandhya Purecha, Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi were present during the event.
Winners of Akademi Ratna & Akademi Puraskar:
The 9 winners of the Akademi Ratna are,
| Winners | Field |
|---|---|
| Saroja Vaidyanathan | Bharatnatyam dancer |
| Sadanam Krishnan Kutty | Kathakali dancer |
| Darshana Jhaveri | Manipuri dancer |
| Chhannu Lal Mishra | classical vocalist |
| Swapan Chaudhuri | Tabla Player |
| AKC Natarajan | Carnatic clarinet player |
| TV Gopalakrishnan | Hindustani musician |
| Tijan Bai | folk singer |
| Bharat Gupt | musicologist |
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards:
The 128 recipients of Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards include 3 joint awards.
The joint awards are,
- The Sharma Bandhu – Gopal Sharma, Shukdev Sharma, Kaushlendra Sharma and Raghvendra Sharma, were honoured with Akademi Puraskar for 2019 in the field of Music(Sugam Sangeet)
- Kathak dancers Raghav Raj Bhatt and Mangala Bhatt were honoured with Akademi Puraskar for 2019.
- Kuchipudi dancers, Pasumarthy Vithai and Bharathi Vithai were honoured with Akademi Puraskar for 2020.
Click here for the list of all winners of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2019,2020 & 2021.
About Akademi Ratna & Akademi Puraskar:
Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship(Akademi Ratna):
i.Akademi Ratna is the highest honour conferred by Sangeet Natak Akademi without distinction of nationality, race, caste, religion, creed, or sex.
The first Fellow of the Akademi was elected in 1954,
- Till date the Akademi has honoured 153 eminent personalities as Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna).
ii.Till 2008, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna Sadasyata), the most prestigious and rare honour was restricted to 30 persons at any given time.
iii.Following the amendment of the Rules and Regulations in the meeting of the General Council on 29 January 2010, 10 more seats of Akademi Fellows have been increased to be filled up in a phased manner over 5 years – 2 seats per year.
- The number of Akademi Fellows has increased from 30 to 40.
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards(Akademi Puraskar):
The number of Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards to be conferred annually is 41 at present and so far over 1298 artists have been honoured with Akademi Puraskar.
i.The awards in Hindustani and Carnatic music were instituted in 1951 and were known as Presidential Awards.
ii.Following the formation of Sangeet Natak Akademi the Presidential Awards for 1952 and 1953 were subsequently incorporated in the list of Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards.
Eligibility:
Akademi Ratna will be ordinarily presented to artists above the age of 50 and the Akademi Awards will be given to artists aged at least 35 or above.
A recipient of Akademi Ratna will not be eligible for an Akademi Puraskar (Akademi Award) at any stage.
Prize: The Akademi Ratna carries a cash prize of Rs 3 lakhs and the Akademi Puraskar carries a cash prize of Rs. 1 Lakh. The award also carries a Tamrapatra and Angavastram.
Recent Related News:
On January 25, 2023, the Padma Awards 2023 were announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on the eve of India’s 74th Republic Day. The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, has approved the conferment of 106 Padma Awards for the year 2023.
About Sangeet Natak Akademi:
Sangeet Natak Akademi is the apex body in the field of performing arts in India.
Chairman– Dr Sandhya Purecha
Headquarters– New Delhi, Delhi
Established in 1953
