President of India confers Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for 2016

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for the year 2016 at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 17 January 2018.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that art connects people with culture and the artists should use this power of art in the interest of the society and country.

Further, the President appreciated the Sangeet Natak Akademi for honouring artists who are in the field of tribal music, dance, theatre and traditional folk arts. He said that these folk arts have kept the traditions of the country alive.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Fellowships and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are recognised as among the most coveted national honours bestowed on performing artists as well as teachers and scholars of performing arts.

Following is the list of winners:

Akademi Fellows

Arvind Parikh
R Vedavalli
Ram Gopal Bajaj
Sunil Kothari

Akademi Awards 2016

Music

Padma Talwalkar:  Hindustani Vocal Music

Prabhakar Karekar: Hindustani Vocal Music

Arvind Mulgaonkar: Hindustani Instrumental Music- Tabla

Kala Ramnath: Hindustani Instrumental Music- Violin

Neela Ramgopal: Carnatic Vocal Music

K Omanakutty: Carnatic Vocal Music

J Vaidhyanathan: Carnatic Instrumental Music – Mridangam

Mysore M Manjunath: Carnatic Instrumental Music – Violin

Ningthoujam Shyamchand Singh: Other Major Traditions of Music – Nata Sankirtana, Manipur

Ratnamala Prakash: Other Major Traditions of Music- Sugam Sangeet

Ahmed Hussain &  Mohd Hussain: Other Major Traditions of Music – Sugam Sangeet

Dance

Geeta Chandran: Bharatanatyam

Jitendra Maharaj: Kathak Dance

Kalamandalam Ramachandran Unnithan: Kathakali

Maisnam Kaminikumar Singh: Manipuri

A B Bala Kondala Rao: Kuchipudi

Ratikant Mohapatra: Odissi

Haricharan Bhuyan Borbayan: Sattriya

Gopal Prasad Dubey: Chhau

Anita R Ratnam: Contemporary

Theatre

Kusum Kumar: Playwriting

Satyabrata Rout: Direction

Bipin Kumar: Direction

Rajkamal Nayak: Direction

Gireesan V: Acting

Oinam Biramangol Singh: Acting

Mohan Joshi: Acting

Anjana Puri: Allied Theatre Arts – Music for Theatre

K Govind Bhat: Other Major Traditions of Theatre- Yakshgana

Traditional/ Folk/Tribal Music/Dance/Theatre and Puppetry

Annabattula Lakshmi  Mangatayaru and Annabattula Leela Sai: Traditional Theatre (Kalavantulu), Andhra Pradesh

Yogesh Gadhavi: Folk Music, Gujarat

Vidyanand Saraik: Folk Music, Himachal Pradesh

Somnath D Chari: Traditional Music, Goa

Laxmidhar Rout: Pala, Odisha

Chiranji Lal Tanwar: Mand, Rajasthan

Gulzar Ahmad Ganie: Folk Music (chakri), Jammu & Kashmir

Braj Kishor Dubey: Folk Music, Bihar

Prabhitangsu Das: Puppetry

Dattatreya Aralikatte: Puppetry

Overall Contribution/ Scholarship in the Performing Arts

Pappu Venugopal Rao

Avinash Pasricha