NEW DELHI, December 16(MIC): Manipuri dance Guru R. K. Singhajit Singh and eminent theatre personality Heisnam Kanhailal from Manipur were among eleven well known personalities of performing arts of the country selected for the Akademi Fellows for the year 2011. Priti Patel, the Director and Choreographer of Anjika Manipuri Dance Troupe based in Kolkata was selected for the Akademi Awards 2011 in the field of dance.
The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi at its meeting held on December 13 and 14 this year in New Delhi selected eleven eminent personalities namely Mukund Lath, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Amjad Ali Khan, Umayalapuram Sivaraman, M. Chandrasekharan, R K Singhajit Singh, Kalamandalarn Gopi, Padma Subrahmanyam, Chandrasekhar Kambarand and Heisnam Kanhailal for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna) for the year 2011 in recognition of their contribution in their respective fields of performing arts. The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and rare honour, which is restricted to a very limited number at a given time. Presently there are only 40 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
The General Council of the Akademi also selected thirty six persons from the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2011.
In the field of Music; nine eminent artists namely Shruti Sadolikar Katkar and M Venkatesh Kumar for Hindustani vocal music, Totaram Sharma (Pakhawaj) and Pushparaj Koshti (Surbahar) for Hindustani instrumental music, Venkataraman for Carnatic vocal music, E M Subramaniam (Ghatam), Ayyagari Symasundaram (Veena) and Seshampatti T Sivalingam (Nagaswaram) for Carnatic instrumental music, and Gopal Chandra Panda (Odissi Music) for Other Major Traditions of Music were selected for the Akademi Award 2011.
In the field of Dance; nine eminent practitioners, namely Narthaki Natraj (Bharatanatyam), Manjushree Chatterjee (Kathak), Thonnakkal Peethambaram (Kathakali), Priti Pate1 (Manipuri), Alekhya Punjala (Kuchipudi), Ramli Ibrahim (Odissi), V K Mymavathy (Mohiniattam), Tanusree Shankar (Creative & experimental dance) and Karaikudi Krishnamurthi (Music for dance) were selected for the Akademi Award 2011.
In the field of Theatre; eight eminent persons were selected for Akademi Awards 2011. They were Alakhnandan and Kirti Jain for Direction, Amitabh Shrivastav, Vikram Gokhale, Neena Tiwana and A R Srinivasan for Acting, R Nageswara Rao (Babji) for Major Traditions of Theatre – Company Theatre, Andhra Pmdesh and Kamal Jain for Allied Theatre Arts (Lighting).
For their contribution to Other Traditional/ Folk/ Tribal Music/ Dance/ Theatre and Puppetry; eight artistes were selected for the Akademi Awards 2011. They were Trippekulam Achuta Marar for Traditional Music (Kerala), Hemant Chauhan for Folk Music (Gujarat), Gurmeet Bawa for Folk Music (Punjab), Kashiram Sabu for Folk Theatre (Chhatisgarh), Mipham Otsal for Traditional Theatre (Jammu & Kashmir), Bellagallu Veeranna for Togalu Gombeyatta, Puppetry (Karnataka), Gopal Chandra Das for Putul Nach (Tripura) and Kasmi Khan Niyazi for making of musical Instruments (DeIhi).
Sundari Sridharani and Shrivats Goswami will receive the Akademi Award 2011 for Overall Contribution/Scholarship to Performing Arts .
The honour of Akademi Fellow had been conferred since 1954 and Akademi Award since 1952. They not only symbolized the highest standard of excellence and achievements on a national basis, but also recognized sustained individual work and contribution to the practice and appreciation of the arts through performance, teaching and scholarship. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs 3,00,000/- (Rupees three lacs) and Akademi Awards carry Rs 1,00,000/- (Rupees one lac), besides Tamrapatra and Angavastram.