President Pranab Mukherjee presents Sangeet Natak Akademi awards

CHENNAI: Bharatanatyam exponent Ranganayaki Jayaraman and noted violinist Lalgudi G J R Krishnan were among the prominent artistes who received Sangeet Natak Akademi awards from President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Tuesday. An official statement said the President presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowships (Akademi Ratna) and Sangeet Natak Akademi

awards (Akademi Puraskars) for the Year-2015 at a function in . In the field of music, eleven eminent artistes -- Krishna Bisht and Mashkoor Ali Khan for Hindustani vocal music, Kartik Kumar for Hindustani instrumental music-sitar, Brij Narayan for Hindustani instrumental music-sarod, R N Thyagarajan and R N Tharanathan (joint award) for Carnatic vocal music, Suguna Varadhachari for Carnatic vocal music, Lalgudi G J R Krishnan for Carnatic instrumental music-violin, Mambalam M K S Siva for Carnatic instrumental music-nagaswaram, Bhupinder Singh, Hridyanath Mangeshkar and Prafulla Kar for other major traditions of music-Sugam Sangeet -- were presented the Akademi awards.

In the field of dance, nine eminent artistes were given awards --Ranganayaki Jayaraman for Bharatanatyam, K Kunhiraman Nair for Kathakali, G Padmaja Reddy for Kuchipudi, Aloka Kanungo for Odissi, Sharodi Saikia for Sattriya dance, Mandakini Trivedi for Mohiniyattam, Sadashiva Pradhan for Chhau dance, W Lokendrajit Singh for contemporary/experimental dance and Rajkumar Bharathi for music for dance.

In the field of theatre, nine eminent artistes got the awards -- Nand Kishore Acharya and Shafaat Khan for playwriting, Parvez Akhtar and Mushtaq Kak for direction, Manoj N Joshi and Himani Shivpuri for acting, Pradeep Mulye for allied theatre arts-scenic design, Sarojini Nangiar for other major traditions of theatre-Kutiyattam and Rani Balbir Kaur for overall contribution in theatre.

In the field of traditional/folk/tribal music/dance/theatre and puppetry, ten artistes were given the awards. They are Khuman Lal Sao (folk music of Chhattisgarh), Ramchandra Singh (folk theatre of Bihar), Khem Raj (folk music of Jammu and Kashmir), S R D Prasad (martial arts of Kerala), Chhaya and Maya Khutegaonkar (joint award for folk dance of Maharashtra-Lavani), Gangmei Aluna Kabuini (traditional dance and music of Manipur), Paramjit Singh Sidhu (folk music of Punjab), Sayeed Sabri Jaipuri (Qawwali, Rajasthan), K K Ramachandra Pulavar and T N Sankaranathan for puppetry.

President Pranab Mukherjee presents Sangeet Natak Akademi awards , Bharatanatyam exponent Ranganayaki Jayaraman and noted violinist Lalgudi G J R Krishnan