Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar of the Sangeet Natak Akademi for the year 2009 here today presented by Shri Ratan Thiyam, Vice Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi. 33 young artists who have made a mark in their respective fields of performing arts have been selected from all over the country by the General Council of the Akademi for the award.

            The ‘Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar’ was instituted in the year 2006 by Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, an autonomous body of Ministry of Culture, Government of India and apex institution of performing arts in the country. The puraskar is meant to encourage outstanding young talents in diverse fields of performing arts and give them national recognition early in life so that they may work with greater commitment and dedication in life-long pursuit of their chosen artform. The Puraskar is given to performing artists below the age of 35 years as on 1^st April of the year of the Puraskar, and covers music, dance, theatre, puppetry and other traditional, folk and tribal forms of performing arts.

 In the field of Music, eight Puraskars to nine young artists (including one joint award) namely Omkar Shrikant Dadarkar for Hindustani Vocal; Murad Ali (Sarangi), and  Sanjeev Shankar and Ashwani Shankar (Joint Award in Shehnai) for Hindustani Instrumental Music;  C.S. Sajeev for Carnatic Vocal; Mysore A Chandan Kumar (Flute) and Trivandrum V Balaji (Mridangam) for Carnatic Instrumental Music; Anil Srinivasan for Creative & Experimental Music; Moirangthem Meina Singh for Other Major Traditions of Music – Nata Sankirtana of Manipur will receive the Puraskar.

In the field of Dance, eight artists namely Ragini Chander Shekar, Bharatanatyam; Monisa Nayak, Kathak; Hanglem Indu Devi, Manipuri; Chinta Ravi Balakrishna, Kuchipudi; Lingaraj Pradhan, Odissi; Menaka P P Bora, Sattriya; Manjula B Murthy, Mohiniattam and Swamimalai K Suresh, Music for Dance (Bharatanatyam Nattuvangam & Vocal) will be the recipients.

In the field of Theatre also eight artists namely Abanti Chakraborty and Sukracharjya Rabha for Direction; Mukta Vasant Barve, Palani Murugan and Teekam Chandra Joshi for Acting; Milind Srivastava (Lighting) and Juhi Babbar (Costumes) for Allied Theatre Arts and     S. Gobi (Bhagavata Mela of Tamil Nadu) for Major Traditions of Theatre will receive the Puraskar.

For their talent in Other Traditional/Folk/Tribal Dance/Music/Theatre and Puppetry, Reshma Musale, Lavani & Tamasha (Maharastra); K Nellai Manikandan, Folk Dance        (Tamil Nadu); Hmar Zohmingliana, Tribal Dance & Music (Mizoram); Takhellambam Shyamkanhai Singh, Wari Leeba (Manipur); T.R. Sooraj Nambiar, Kutiyattam (Kerala);           Shah-e-Jahan Ahmad Bhagat, Bhand Pather (Jammu and Kashmir); Nazia Sayeed, Odissi Music (Orissa) and Lala Bhata, Kathputli (Rajasthan) have been selected for the Puraskar.

A weeklong festival of Music, Dance and Theatre featuring some of the recipients of the year will be held from 10-17 August 2010 at Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi.

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