Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2008 announced

As many as 33 young artistes from all over India, including musicians, dancers, stage actors and folk performers, have been chosen by the Sangeet Natak Akademi for the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puruskar 2008.

The awards are given to young artistes, below the age of 35 years, who have made a mark in their fields of performing arts. The award carries prize money of Rs 25,000. They will be presented at a special ceremony later this year, an official statement said.

The awards were instituted in 2006 in the memory of shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, who died in August that year. They are aimed at identifying and encouraging young talents in diverse fields of performing arts and giving them national recognition early in their life so that they may work with greater commitment and dedication.

The following is the list of awardees:

Music

Rajnish Mishra & Ritesh Mishra (jointly) and Vishal Jain for Hindustani Vocal Music; Jai Shankar Mishra (Tabla), Debopriya Chatterjee (Flute) for Hindustani Instrumental Music; V.Sumitra and Manasi Prasad for Carnatic Vocal Music; C.S.Balabhaskar (Violin) and B.S.Purushotham (Kanjeera) for Carnatic Instrumental Music.

Dance

Gayatri Balagurunathan (Bharatanatyam), Gauri Diwakar (Kathak), Vijaykumar N. (Kathakali), Bimbavati Devi (Manipuri), Rahul Acharya (Odissi), Arunima Kumar (Kuchipudi), Meernanda Barthakur (Sattriya), and Purvadhanshree (Vilasani Natyam).

Theatre

Sumit Sharma and Amitesh Grover for Direction, Vijender Kumar and J.L.Saritha for Acting, Irawati Karnik for Playwriting, Ajay Kumar for Allied Theatre Arts (Music for Theatre) and Govind Singh Yadav for Allied Theatre Arts (Lighting), R.K.Sanaton Singh for Major Traditions of Theatre – Shumang Leela of Manipur.

Other Traditional/Folk/Tribal Dance, Music, Theatre & Puppetry

Ritu Verma for Pandavani (Chhattisgarh), Dayaram for Mand (Rajasthan), Sayed Mohammad Irfan P P for Folk Music-Dolipattu (Lakshadweep), Mayanglambam Mangangangsana Meitei for Traditional Music-Pena (Manipur), Shabir Ahmed Saznawaz for Soofiyana Kalam (Jammu & Kashmir), Pramod Kumar Nahak for Prahlad Natak (Orissa), Sudarshan K.V. for Yakshagana Gombeyatta – Puppetry (Karnataka) and Srikanta Bose for Mime (West Bengal).

NNN