Sangeet Natak Akademi Announces 2024 and 2025 Awards

Sangeet Natak Akademi announced the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, also called Akademi Ratna, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards, also called Akademi Puraskar, for the 2024 and 2025 cycles. The Akademi’s General Council selected seven fellows, 108 Akademi Awardees, and 106 young artists for the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar.

Sangeet Natak Akademi

Sangeet Natak Akademi is India’s national academy for music, dance, and drama. It functions under the Ministry of Culture and recognises performers and scholars in the performing arts.

Fellowship and Award Structure

The Akademi Fellowship is the highest honour of the institution and is known as Akademi Ratna. The Akademi Awards are known as Akademi Puraskar, while the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar is given to young artists in the performing arts.

• Akademi Fellows receive ₹3 lakh, a Tamrapatra, and an Angavastram.
• Akademi Awardees receive ₹1 lakh, a Tamrapatra, and an Angavastram.
• Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar winners receive ₹25,000, a Tamrapatra, and an Angavastram.

2024 and 2025 Honours

The seven selected Akademi Fellows are Ramlal Bareth, A V Anand, Rita Ganguly, Puru Dadheech, Chittaranjan Jyotishi, Pasumarthi Rattaiah Sarma, and Sudharani Raghupathy. The 2024 music awardees include Arun Nagesh Kashalkar, Nirmalya Dey, Bharat Bhushan Goswami, Sanjay Mukherjee, Krishna Vageesh, and Rakesh Chaurasia.

The 2024 dance awardees include Rajeswari Sainath, Bipul Chandra Das, Rajkumari Thambalsana Devi, Veena Murthy Vijay, Bichitrananda Swain, Prema Ozah Borbayan, and Sreedevi Rajan. The 2024 and 2025 cycles together cover 115 performing artists for the investiture ceremony.

Investiture Ceremony at Vigyan Bhawan

President Droupadi Murmu will present the awards at a special investiture ceremony on 13 August 2026 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The ceremony will include national honours for 10 selected artists from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur, and Nagaland.

Important Facts for Exams

• Sangeet Natak Akademi was established in 1953 as India’s national academy for music, dance, and drama.
• Akademi Ratna is the fellowship category of Sangeet Natak Akademi.
• Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar is meant for young artists in the performing arts.
• Vigyan Bhawan is a major conference venue in New Delhi used for national ceremonies.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are among India’s principal honours for performing arts. The awards cover music, dance, and related classical and traditional art forms.