Newdelhi:11/8/26:The Hon’ble President of India will confer the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Awards for the years 2024 and 2025 to 115 artists in a special investiture ceremony scheduled for Thursday, 13 August 2026 at 11:30 a.m. at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Hon’ble Minister for Culture and Tourism, Govt. of India, Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for Planning, Statistics, and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge) and Hon’ble Minister of State for Culture, Govt. of India, Shri Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India and Dr Sandhya Purecha, Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi will grace the award ceremony.
The Fellows and Awardees so selected represent the nation as a whole, and belong to different States and Union Territories of India. Besides, these eminent artists cover the entire gamut of performing arts, including music, dance, drama, folk & tribal art, puppetry, and allied theatre art forms.
The Akademi Awards have been conferred since 1952. These honours not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievement, but also recognize sustained individual work and contribution. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs. 3,00,000/- (Rupees three lakh only) while the Akademi Award carries a purse money of Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh only), besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram.
The list of 115 artists selected for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards is attached in Annexure-1.
ANNEXURE-1
List of Fellows
- Ramlal Bareth
- A V Anand
- Rita Ganguly
- Puru Dadheech
- Chittaranjan Jyotishi
- Pasumarthi Rattaiah Sarma
- Sudharani Raghupathy
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2024
Field of Activity: Music (12)
| Arun Nagesh Kashalkar | Hindustani Vocal |
| Nirmalya Dey | Hindustani Vocal – Dhrupad |
| Bharat Bhushan Goswami | Hindustani Instrumental – Sarangi |
| Sanjay Mukherjee | Hindustani Instrumental – Tabla |
| Krishna Vageesh | Carnatic Vocal |
| N. Vijay Siva | Carnatic Vocal |
| A S Krishnan | Carnatic Instrumental – Morching |
| Komanduri Seshadri | Carnatic Instrumental – Violin |
| Rakesh Chaurasia | Creative and Experimental – Flute |
| Prabhati Mukherjee | Other Major traditions of Music – Sugam Sangeet |
| Anand Bhate | Other Major traditions of Music – Abhang |
| Samandar Khan Manganiar | Other Major traditions of Music – Mand |
Field of Activity: Dance (12)
| Rajeswari Sainath | Bharatanatyam |
| Bipul Chandra Das | Kathak |
| Rajkumari Thambalsana Devi | Manipuri |
| Veena Murthy Vijay | Kuchipudi |
| Bichitrananda Swain | Odissi |
| Prema Ozah Borbayan | Sattriya |
| Sreedevi Rajan | Mohiniattam |
| Nripen Sahis | Chhau |
| Shashidharan Nair | Creative and Experimental |
| Kalamandalam Unnikrishnan | Music for Dance – Kathakali |
| Kumara Surya Narayana | Music for Dance |
Field of Activity: Theatre (10)
| Satish Dave | Direction |
| T S Nagabharana | Direction |
| Ravi Chaturvedi | Direction |
| Om Katare | Direction |
| Gummadi Gopala Krishna Rao | Acting |
| Vagai Chanderasekar | Acting |
| Arun Nalavde | Acting |
| Dhiren D Merchant | Allied Theatre Arts – Lighting |
| Dinesh Kumar Poddar | Allied Theatre Arts – Lighting |
| Mukund Ram Marathe | Traditional Theatre – Sangeet Natak |
Field of Activity: Folk and Tribal/Puppet/Mask Making/Instruments Making (13)
| Dursheti Ramaiah | Folk Music, Telangana |
| K Murugan | Folk Dance, Puducherry |
| S C Sharma | Folk & Tribal Music, Karnataka |
| Atamjeet Singh | Nautanki, Uttar Pradesh |
| Mahendra Ram | Folk Music, Bihar |
| Butan Devi and Somari Devi (Joint) | Folk Dance, Jharkhand |
| Ranajit Kumar Nag | Folk Dance – Sambalpuri, Odisha |
| Hawa Singh | Folk Music, Haryana |
| Veswuzo Phesao | Folk Music & Dance, Nagaland |
| Gulabi Sapera | Folk Dance, Rajasthan – Kalbeliya |
| Lourembam Bedabati | Folk Music, Manipur |
| Subhash Narayan Nakashe | Folk Dance, Maharashtra |
| Kishorbhai Somabhai Mistry | Instrument making – Rudra Veena |
Field of Activity: Overall and others (5)
| T S Sathyavathi | Overall Contribution in Music |
| Voleti Rangamani | Overall Contribution in Dance |
| Shubhada Manohar Varadkar | Scholarship in Performing Arts – Dance |
| Tapati Chowdhurie | Art Critique – Performing Arts |
| Sunanda Nair | Overseas – Dance (Mohiniattam) |
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2025
Field of Activity: Music (12)
| Krishna Mohan Pathak | Hindustani Vocal – Dhrupad |
| Suresh Gandharv | Hindustani Vocal |
| Shailesh Bhagwat | Hindustani Instrumental – Shehnai |
| Jyoti Ganpati Hegde | Hindustani Instrumental – Rudra Veena |
| Pantula Rama | Carnatic Vocal |
| Papanasam Ashok Ramani | Carnatic Vocal |
| Tripoonithura N Radhakrishnan | Carnatic Instrumental – Ghatam |
| Anoor R. Anantha Krishna Sharma | Carnatic Instrumental – Mridangam |
| D. Srinivas | Carnatic Instrumental – Veena |
| Yugantar Sindoor | Other Major traditions of Music – Sugam Sangeet |
| Satchidananda Das | Other Major traditions of Music – Mardala |
| Seema Anil Sehgal | Other Major traditions of Music – Sugam Sangeet |
Field of Activity: Dance (12)
| Roja Kannan | Bharatanatyam |
| Krishna Mohan Mishra Maharaj, Vaswati Misra and Ram Mohan Maharaj (Trio) | Kathak |
| Kalamandalam Krishnakumar | Kathakali |
| Irengbam Nalini Devi | Manipuri Seetha Nagajothy and P. Nagajothy (Joint) |
| Mallika Kandali | Sattriya |
| Girija Chandran | Mohiniattam |
| Pagulu Jena | Chhau – Mayurbhanj |
| Kaniyal Hariprasad | Music for Dance – Bharatanatyam |
| Bhaskar Jyoti Ojah | Music for Dance – Sattriya |
| S. Kumar | Other Major Traditions of Dance & Dance Theatre – Bhagavatamela |
Field of Activity: Theatre (10)
| Kapildev Chandrakant Shukla | Direction |
| Kallol Bhattacharyya | Direction |
| Navdeep Kaur | Direction |
| Pramod Dnyandeo Pawar | Direction |
| Subodh Patnaik | Direction |
| Chetana Das | Acting |
| Suresh Kumar Hazzu | Acting |
| Makhan Lal Saraf | Acting |
| Ashok Patki | Allied Theatre Arts – Music for Theatre |
| Usha Nangiar | Other Major Traditions of Theatre – Nangiarkooth |
Field of Activity: Folk and Tribal/Puppet/Mask Making/Instruments Making (13)
| Anup Ranjan Pandey | Folk Music, Chhattisgarh |
| Bheru Singh Chouhan | Folk Music, Madhya Pradesh – Nirguni |
| Surjya Kumar Debbarma | Folk Dance, Tripura |
| Joginder Singh Habbi | Folk Dance, Himachal Pradesh |
| Romalo Ram | Folk Music & Dance, Jammu and Kashmir |
| Harmanpreet Singh | Folk Dance, Punjab |
| Ali Mohammad | Folk Music, Ladakh |
| Domin Karbak | Folk Dance, Arunachal Pradesh |
| K. Rosiama | Folk Dance, Mizoram |
| Rani Maring | Instrument Making |
| Sushanta Kumar | Mask Making – Chhau |
| Mangla Prasad Sharma | Instrument Making |
Field of Activity: Overall and Others (5)
| Kunal | Overall Contribution in Theatre |
| Maneesha Sathe | Overall Contribution in Dance – Kathak |
| Rakesh Sinha | Overall Contribution – Art Photography |
| Manjari Sinha | Art Critique – Performing Arts |
| T S Nandakumar | Overseas – Music (Mridangam) |