President presents Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards to 42 for year 2017

New Delhi [India], Feb 6 (ANI): President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for the year 2017 to 42 noted artistes in five categories.
The awards were presented at a special function held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.
A total of 10 eminent artistes received awards in the field of music. They were Lalith J Rao (Hindustani vocal), Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha (Hindustani vocal), Yogesh Samsi (tabla), Rajendra Prasanna (shehnai/flute), MS Sheela (Carnatic vocal), Suma Sudhindra (veena), Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan (mridangam), Shashank Subramanyam (flute), Madhurani and Haimanti Sukla (Sugam Sangeet) and Gurnam Singh (Gurbani).
Nine artistes were presented awards for their contribution in the field of dance. They were Rama Vaidyanathan (Bharatanatyam), Shobha Koser (Kathak), Madambi Subramanian (Kathakali), LN Oinam Ongbi Dhoni Devi (Manipuri), Deepika Reddy (Kuchipudi), Sujata Mohapatra (Odissi), Ramkrishna Talukdar (Sattriya), Janmajay Saibabu (Chhau) and Aashit Desai (music for dance).
A total of nine noted artistes were facilitated for their contribution to theatre. They were Abhiram Bhadakamkar (playwriting), Sunil Shanbagh (direction), Bapi Bose (direction), Hema Singh, Deepak Tiwari, Anil Tickoo (acting), Nuruddin Ahmed (stage-craft), Avtar Sahani (lighting) and Shougrakpam Hemanta Singh (Shumang Leela, Manipur).
Ten artistes received awards for their contribution in the field of traditional art forms including folk and tribal music, dance, theatre, and puppetry.
Anwar Khan Manganiyar (Rajasthan), Ramchandra Majhi (Bihar), Parvathy Baul
(West Bengal), Saravjit Kaur (Punjab), K C Runremsangi (Mizoram) and Mukund Nayak (Jharkhand) were felicitated for folk music, while Prakash Khandge (folk arts, Maharashtra), Jagannath Bayan (traditional music, Khol, Assam), Rakesh Tiwari (folk theatre, Chhattisgarh) and Sudip Gupta (puppetry, West Bengal), were awarded for traditional, folk, tribal music, dance, theatre and puppetry.
Furthermore, Vijay Verma (scholarship) and Sandhya Purecha (overall contribution in dance) were felicitated in the field of performing arts. (ANI)