Sangeet Natak Akademi awards conferred in Agartala

Tripura governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya and Sangeet Natak Akademi chairman Leela Samson presented the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awards for 2012 here Saturday to 32 young artists from across the country.

The awards, which carry Rs. 25,000 and a citation, for the first time have been given at a function outside Delhi.

A five-day-long national festival of music, dance and drama featuring the recipients of Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2012 was also inaugurated Saturday by Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar.

Sangeet Natak Akademi is endeavoring to find out talented artists in music, dance and drama including folk and traditional performing arts of northeastern region, Sangeet Natak Akademi's secretary Helen Acharya told reporters here Saturday.

"To reach out to the endowed artists in music, dance and drama including folk and traditional performing arts, the Akademi has been taking special initiative for the past many years," Helen said.

She said: "To find out the skillful artists and also to support them in numerous ways, the Akademi has set up centres in Manipur capital Imphal and Assam's main city Guwahati."

To encourage the young artists, the Sangeet Natak Akademi since 2006 has been awarding Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar. So far 192 awards have been given to young artists from across the country by the Akademi.

The seventh Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2012 were given to eight musicians, eight dances and eight theatre artists and eight practitioners of folk and traditional performing arts.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi had set up the Sattriya Kendra (a centre for Sattriya dance, music, and theatre traditions) in Assam's main city of Guwahati in July 2008 to promote, propagate and preserve these traditions.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi had also set up its northeast centre in Shillong in August 2008, for the purpose of preserving the traditional and folk performing art traditions of northeastern India. The centre has recently moved to Guwahati and is housed in the Sattriya Kendra premises.