Sangeet Natak Akademi awards presented

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 12. The Sangeet Natak Akademi awards for 1999 and 2000 were presented to a galaxy of cultural luminaries of the country at a simple function here this evening by the Vice- President, Mr. Krishan Kant.

With the presentation of the awards, began the nine- day-long Festival of Music, Dance and Theatre featuring many of the artistes who were among the awards today. While the festival will begin in right earnest on Sunday, the awards presentation function was followed by a jugalbandi by the Hindustani vocalist, Mr. Ajoy Chakraborty, and the Carnatic vocalist, Mr. T. N. Seshagopalan.

Besides these two musicians, the other artistes who were presented the Akademi awards for music today were Ms. Rita Ganguli (Hindustani vocal), Mr. Shankar Ghosh (tabla), Mr. Appa Jalgaonkar (harmonium), Mr. S. R. Janakiraman and Mr. Neyattinkara Vasudevan for Carnatic vocal, and Mr. V. Kamalakar Rao (mridangam). Four awarded musicians - Ms. Malabika Kanan (Hindustani), Mr.Rajiv Taranath (sarod), Mr. T. S. Sankaran (flute) and Mr. R. R. Keshavamurthy (violin) - were not present to collect their awards.

In the dance segment, the awards went to Mr. K. Kalyanasundaram Pillai, Ms. Leela Samson and Mr. H. R. Keshavamurthy for Bharatanatyam, Ms. Madhavi Mudgal and Ms. Minati Mishra for Odissi, Mr. Nelliyodu Vasudevan Namboodiri for Kathakli, Ms. Shovana Narayan for Kathak, Mr. Sorokhaibam Naran Singh for Manipuri, Ms. Swapnasundari for Kuchipudi, Ms. Bharati Shivaji for Mohiniattam and Mr. Parmanand Barbayan for Sattriya. Ms. Mallika Sarabhai - who was selected for the award for her creativity - was not present.

The theatre awards went to Ms. Ketaki Dutta, Ms. Sabitri Chattopadhyay and Ms. Seema Biswas for acting, Mr. Balwant Thakur and Ms. Nadira Zaheer Babbar for direction, and Mr. N. Muthuswamy for playwriting. Mr. Prasanna, selected for the award for direction, was not present to collect the recognition.

In the segment reserved for other aspects of theatre, Mr. R. K. Dhingra got the award for lighting, Mr. Robin Das for scenic design, Mr. Kamal Tiwari and Mr. Kajal Ghosh for theatre music and Mr. Shakti Sen for make-up.

The awards for traditional folk/tribal music/dance/ theatre and puppetry were shared by individuals from across the country: Mr. Gajanan Verma for folk music of Rajasthan, Mr. V. Appukutty Poduval for `Maddalam' of Kerala, Mr. H. Kaibua for folk music of Mizoram, Mr. Kalu Balu Kulapurkar for `Tamasha' of Maharashtra, Mr. Agat A. Sangama for folk music of Meghalaya, Sharda Sinha for folk music of Bihar, Ms. Kamala Murthy for `Harikatha' of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Krushna Chandra Sahu for Prahlad Natak of Orissa, Mr. Mamman Khan for folk music of Haryana, Mr. G. S. Chani for community theatre of Punjab and Mr. B. H. Puttasamacha for puppetry from Karnataka.

And, the three awards for overall contribution to performing arts went to Mr. Nemi Chandra Jain, Ms. Shanta Serbjeet Singh and Mr. B. V. K. Sastry.

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