President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Awards for the year 2014 at Rashtrapati Bhavan here today.
The President presented awards and fellowships to 40 artists including dancers, musicians, traditional folk artists and theatre artists.
Carnatic vocalist and a musicologist S R Janakiraman, film director M S Sathyu, musicians Vijay Kumar Kichlu and Tulsidas Borkar were awarded Akademi fellowships.
In the music category, Ashwini Bhinde Deshpande, Iqbal Ahmed Khan and Nath Neralkar were awarded under Hindustani vocal music while Nayan Ghosh and Ronu Majumdar were awarded under Hindustani instrumental music.
Sangeet Natak Akademi awards for Carnatic vocal music was given to R Santhanagopalan while Thiruvalaputhur T A Kaliyamurthy, Sukanya Ramgopal and Dwaram Durga Prasada Rao were awarded for Carnatic instrumental music.
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Sangeet Natak Akademi awards for dance was presented to Arayambath Janardanan (Bharatanatyam), Uma Dogra (Kathak), N Amusana Devi (Manipuri), Vedantam Radhesyam (Kuchipudi), Sudhakar Sahoo (Odissi), Anita Sharma (Sattriya), Jagru Mahato (Chhau), Navtej Singh Johar (contemporary dance) and Varanasi Vishnu Nampoothiri (music for Kathakali).
The President also felicitated theatre artists including Asgar Wajahat (playwriting), Surya Mohan Kulshreshtha and Chidambar Rao Jambe (direction), Deb Sankar Halder and Ramdas Kamat for acting, Amod Bhatt (allied theatre arts- music for theatre), Manjunath Bhagwat Hostota (other major traditions of theatre-Yakshagana) and Amardas Manikpuri (music for theatre-Chattisgarh).
Folk artists or traditional artists like Puran Shah Koti (traditional music-Punjab), K Kesavasamy (puppetry-Puducherry), Kalamandalam Ram Mohan (make-up, costume for Kathakali), Reba Kanta Mahanta (mask making Assam) Abdul Rashid Hafiz (folk music J&K), K Shanthaoiba Sharma (Thang-ta Manipur), Ram Dayal Sharma (nautanki, Uttar Pradesh) and Thanga Darlong (folk music Tripura) were also awarded.
Akshara K V and Indudhar Nirody were given the award for overall contribution and scholarship in the performing arts.
