Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IAST: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to people in the field of performing arts.

In 2003, the award consisted of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram (a shawl), and a tamrapatra (a brass plaque). Since 2009, the cash prize has been increased to ₹1,00,000. The awards are given in the categories of music, dance, theatre, other traditional arts and puppetry, and for contribution/scholarship in performing arts.

Award recipients

The recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in various categories of performing arts have been listed below:

Music

Hindustani music

Vocal

Instrumental

Been/Rudra Veena/Vichitra Veena

Flute

• 1983 – Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasiya
• 1986 – Devendra Murdeshwar
• 1994 – Raghunath Seth
• 2010 – Nityanand Haldipur
• 2014 – Ronu Majumdar
• 2017 – Pt. Rajendra Prasanna
• 2019 – Chetan Joshi

Guitar

• 2005 – Brij Bhushan Kabra

Harmonium

• 2000 – Appa Jalgaonkar
• 2005 – Tulsidas Vasant Borkar
• 2022 – Dharamnath Mishra

Pakhavaj

Santoor

• 1986 – Shivkumar Sharma
• 1993 – Bhajan Sopori
• 2018 – Tarun Bhattacharya

Sarangi

Sarod

Shehnai

• 1956 – Ustad Bismillah Khan
• 1985 – Ali Hussain Khan
• 1989 – Pt. Anant Lal
• 1996 – Pt. Raghunath Prasanna
• 2008 – Krishna Ram Chaudhary
• 2009 – Ali Ahmad Hussain
• 2017 – Rajendra Prasanna

Sitar

Surbahar

• 1991 – Annapurna Devi
• 2011 – Pushparaj Koshti

Tabla

Violin

Carnatic music

Vocal

Instrumental

Clarionet

• 1994 – A. K. C. Natarajan

Flute

Ghatam

• 1988 – Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram
• 1995 – Umayalpuram K. Narayanaswamy
• 2011 – E. M. Subramaniam
• 2014 – Sukanya Ramgopal

Gottuvadhyam

• 1958 – Budaloor Krishnamurthy Shastri
• 2006 – N. Ravikiran

Kanjira

• 2001 – G. Harishankar

Mandolin

• 2009 – U. Srinivas

Mridangam

Nagaswaram

Saxophone

• 2003 – Kadri Gopalnath

Thavil

• 1985 – Valangaiman A. Shanmugasundaram Pillai
• 1988 – Valayapatti A. R. Subramaniam
• 2001 – Haridwaramangalam A. K. Palanivel
• 2014 – Thiruvalaputhur T A Kaliyamurthy
• 2021 – Thanjavur R. Govindarajan
• 2022 – Vinukonda Subrahmanyam

Veena

Violin

Creative and experimental music

Other major traditions of music

• 2008 – Ningombam Ibobi Singh (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
• 2009 – L. Ibohalmacha Singh (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
• 2010 – M.V. Simhachala Sastry (Harikatha, Tirupathi)
• 2011 – Gopal Chandra Panda (Odissi Music)
• 2012 – Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (Gurbani)
• 2013 – Bankim Sethi (Odissi Music)
• 2015 – Hridaynath Mangeshkar (Sugam Sangeet), Prafulla Kar (Sugam Sangeet), Bhupinder Singh (Sugam Sangeet)
• 2018 – Suresh Wadkar (Sugam Sangeet), Shanti Hiranand (Sugam Sangeet), H. Ashangbi Devi (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
• 2019 – O. S. Arun (Sugam Sangeet), Sharma Bandhu (Sugam Sangeet), D. Uma Maheshwari (Harikatha)
• 2020 – Anup Jalota (Sugam Sangeet), N. Irabot Singh (Nata Sankirtana)
• 2021 – Susmita Das (Sugam Sangeet), H. R. Leelavathi (Sugam Sangeet), Kumud Diwan (Thumri)
• 2022 – Sapam Kullabi Singh (Nata Pung), Sitaram Singh (Sugam Sangeet)
• 2023 – L. V. Gangadhara Sastry, Sangita Gosain (Oddissi Music)

Dance

Bharatanatyam

Chhau

Creative dance/Choreography

Kathak

Kathakali

Kuchipudi

Manipuri

Mohiniattam

Odissi

Sattriya

Other major traditions of dance and dance theatre

• 2007 – Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri (Kutiyattam)
• 2009 – Kala Krishna (Andhranatyam)
• 2010 – Painkulam Rama Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
• 2012 – Painkulam Damodara Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
• 2013 – Srinivasa Rangachariar (Arayer Sevai)
• 2021 – Kalamandalam Girija (Kutiyattam)
• 2022 – Karuna Borah (Ankiya Bhaona)
• 2023 – Perini Prakash (Periniattam)

Music for dance

Theatre

Acting

From 1952–2003 (language-wise)

Assamese

• 1961 – Mitradev Mahanta Adhikari
• 2001 – Girish Chowdhury

Bengali theatre

Gujarati theatre

Hindi theatre

Kannada

Malayalam

• 1960 – C. I. Parameswaran Pillai
• 1965 – V. T. Aravindaksha Menon
• 1969 – N. N. Pillai

Manipuri

• 1991 – Sabitri Heisnam
• 1997 – R. K. Bhogen

Marathi theatre

Oriya

• 1961 – Samuel Sahu

Sanskrit

• 1965 – Krishnachandra Moreshwar "Daji Bhatawadekar"

Tamil

• 1959 – Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar
• 1962 – T. K. Shanmugam
• 1967 – S. V. Sahasranamam
• 1992 – Poornam Viswanathan

Telugu theatre

• 1961 – Sthanam Narasimha Rao
• 1963 – Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao
• 1973 – Kalyanam Raghuramaiah
• 1986 – Peesapati Narasimha Murty

Urdu

• 1963 – Zohra Sehgal
• 1994 – Uzra Butt

From 2004 onwards

Mime

• 1993 – Jogesh Dutta
• 2002 – Niranjan Goswami
• 2009 – Moinul Haque
• 2018 – Swapan Nandy
• 2021 – Vilas Janve
• 2022 – Yumnam Sadananda Singh

Direction

Playwriting

• Assamese
  • 1986 – Satya Prasad Barua
  • 2003 – Aruna Sarma
• Bengali
  • 1968 – Badal Sircar
  • 1969 – Manmatha Ray
  • 1975 – Bijon Bhattacharya
  • 1985 – Manoj Mitra
  • 1991 – Mohit Chattopadhyaya
• Dogri
  • 2008 – Narsingh Dev Jamwal
• Gujarati
  • 1961 – Prabhulal Dayaram Dwivedi
  • 1971 – C. C. Mehta, Pragji Dossa
• Hindi
  • 1965 – Upendra Nath Ashk
  • 1968 – Mohan Rakesh
  • 1977 – Lakshmi Narain Lal
  • 1988 – Dharamvir Bharati
  • 1992 – Surendra Verma
  • 2001 – Bhisham Sahni, D.P. Sinha
  • 2006 – Prabhat Kumar Bhattacharya
  • 2004 – Swadesh Deepak
  • 2007 – Reoti Sharan Sharna
  • 2008 – Mudra Rakshasa
• Kannada
  • 1963 – Adya Rangacharya 'Shriranga'
  • 1972 – Girish Karnad
  • 1983 – Chandrashekhara Kambara
  • 1980 – Narasinga Rao Parwathavani
  • 1989 – G. B. Joshi
  • 1997 – H. S. Shivaprakash
• Kashmiri
  • 1997 – Moti Lal Kemmu
• Malayalam
  • 1979 – G. Sankara Pillai
  • 1983 – Kavalam Narayana Panikkar
  • 1986 – K. T. Muhammed
  • 1997 – N. Krishna Pillai
  • 2009 – Vayala Vasudevan Pillai
• Manipuri
  • 2007 – Yumnam Rajendra Singh
• Marathi
  • 1958 – B.V. 'Mama' Warerkar
  • 1967 – P. L. Deshpande
  • 1970 – Vijay Tendulkar
  • 1976 – C. T. Khanolkar
  • 1982 – M.G. Rangnekar
  • 1984 – Vasant Shankar Kanetkar
  • 1987 – V.V. Shirwadkar
  • 1989 – Mahesh Elkunchwar
  • 1994 – Satish Alekar
  • 1996 – G.P. Deshpande
  • 2003 – Ratnakar Ramkrishna Matkari
  • 2009 – Shankar Narayan Navre
• Mizo
  • 2007 – Lathangfala Sailo
• Oriya
  • 1981 – Manoranjan Das
  • 1982 – Biswajit Das
  • 1987 – Gopal Chhotray
• Punjabi
  • 1993 – Gursharan Singh
  • 1998 – Balwant Gargi
  • 2010 – Atamjeet Singh
• Tamil
  • 1974 – S.D. Sundaram
  • 1999–2000 – Na. Muthuswamy
  • 2004 – Indira Parthasarathy
• Telugu
  • 2010 – D. Vizai Bhaskar

2012 onwards

• 2012 – Arjun Deo Charan
• 2013 – Rameshwar Prem, Pundalik Narayan Naik
• 2014 – Asgar Wajahat
• 2018 – Rajiv Naik, Laltluangliana Khiangte
• 2019 – Hrishikesh Sulabh
• 2022 – Sohan Lal Kaul
• 2023 – Asif Ali Haider Khan, Pali Bhupinder Singh

Allied Theatre Arts

• Lighting
  • 1974 – Tapas Sen
  • 1977 – V, Ramamurthy
  • 1989 – G.N. Dasgupta
  • 1994 – Kanishka Sen
  • 1997 – Mansukh Joshi (for scenic design also)
  • 1999–2000 – R.K. Dhingra
  • 2002 – Ashok Sagar Bhagat
  • 2003 – Sreenivas G. Kappanna
  • 2005 – Suresh Bhardwaj
  • 2006 - Gautam Bhattacharya
  • 2011 – Kamal Jain
  • 2019 – Souti Chakraborty
  • 2020 – Raghav Prakash
  • 2022 – Daulat Ram Vaid
  • 2023 – Anoop Joshi, Sandeep Dutta
• Scenic Design
  • 1985 – Goverdhan Panchal
  • 1986 – Khaled Choudhury
  • 1988 – Dattatraya Ganesh Godse
  • 1997 – Mansukh Joshi
  • 1999–2000 – Robin Das
  • 2007 – Mahendra Kumar
• Costumes/Make-up
  • 1981 – Ashok Srivastava (Make-up)
  • 1990 – Roshan Alkazi (Costume Design)
  • 1999–2000 – Shakti Sen (Make-up)
  • 2001 – Dolly Ahluwalia (Costume Design)
  • 2003 – Anant Gopal Shinde (Make-up)
  • 2004 – Prema Karanth (Costume Design)
  • 2008 – Amba Sanyal (Costume Designing)
  • 2009 – Kamal Arora (Make-up)
  • 2013 – Krishna Borkar (Make-up)
  • 2019 – N.K. Ramakrishna (Make-up)
  • 2020 – M. Purushottam (Costume Design)
• Music for Theatre
  • 1999–2000 – Kajal Ghosh, Kamal Tewari
  • 2005 - R. Paramashivan
  • 2009 – Kuldeep Singh
  • 2012 - Murari Roychoudhury
  • 2014 - Amod Bhatt, Amardas Manikpuri (Chhattisgarh)
• Stagecraft
  • 1993 – M.S. Sathyu
  • 1995 – N. Krishnamoorthy
  • 2002 – Nissar Allana
  • 2005 – H. V. Sharma
  • 2020 – N. Jadumani Singh

Major traditions of theatre

• 2007 – Kolyur Ramachandra Rao (Yakshagana)
• 2008 – Bansi Lal Khiladi, Khayal (Rajasthan)
• 2012 – Ghulam Rasool Bhagat (Bhand Pather)
• 2014 – Manjunath Bhagwat Hostota (Yakshagana)
• 2018 – Bhagawat A. S. Nanjappa (Yakshagana), A. M. Parameswaran Kuttan Chakkiyar (Kutiyattam)
• 2019 – K. S. Krishanappa (Isai Natakam)
• 2020 – P. P. Kandaswami (Therukoothu)
• 2021 – Gunindra Nath Ojah (Music and Direction in Ankiya Bhaona)
• 2022 – Margi Madhu Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
• 2023 – Piyal Bhattacharya (Sanskrit Theatre)

Other Traditional/ Folk/ Tribal/ Dance/ Music/ Theatre and Puppetry

Puppetry/ Mime/ Allied arts of traditional forms

Films

Overall Contribution/Scholarship

References

External links

• Official website