Sangeet Natak Akademy awards conferred

Thirty-two artistes under the age of 35 from all over the country in various categories of performing arts were today presented with the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2011 by Sangeet Natak Akademi.
The awards were presented by chairperson of the Academy Leela Samson at a function here, which also marked beginning of a week-long festival of music, dance and theatre by the award-winning artistes.
"This is a day to register in your minds that the country recognises you as young artists of great merit. Also, this award comes with great responsibility," Leela Samson said.
Sangeet Natak Akademi, the national academy for music, dance and drama had instituted the awards in 2006 in memory of shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan who died in August that year.

Leela, herself a noted Bharatnatyam dancer, said the country had "produced a long and illustrious line of very great artists like Yamini Krishnamurthy" who she and others looked up to inspiration "to show the light at the the end of a very dark tunnel".
"We live in very skewed times when the commerce of things have overtaken us. As artists, it is important that aesthetics and sensibilities of our times must reflect in our expressions," said Leela.