Noted Odissi dancer Sujata Mohapatra to receive Sangeet Natak Akademi award

Bhubaneswar: Noted Odissi dancer Sujata Mohapatra has been nominated to receive the Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi award this year, official sources said.

Mohapatra, who had started learning Odissi at an early age from Guru Sudhakar Sahu, later took training under Padma Vibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra at Odissi Research Center in Bhubaneshwar.

She married Ratikant Mohapatra, son of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Her daughter Preetisha Mohapatra is also an Odissi dancer.

Another Odissi dancer, Janhabi Behera, was nominated to receive the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2017, an award given to an Indian artist who has made a mark as young talent in his or her respective fields of the performing art.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s national academy for music, dance and drama, on Tuesday announced that a total of 42 artistes have been selected for the prestigious award.

“Sangeet Natak Akademi is pleased to announce that the General Council of the Akademi has at its meeting held on 8 June 2018 in Imphal selected 42 artists, including one joint award, for Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (Akademi Purashkar) for the year 2018,” it said in a tweet.

Twelve artists have been selected from the field of music, 9 each from the fields of dance and theatre, and ten artists have been included from the traditional, folk, tribal music, dance and puppetry fields, the Akademi said.

The list of awardees includes Marathi theatre actor and writer Abhiram Bhadkamkar, traditional musician from Rajasthan Anwar Khan Manganiyar and among others, the revered classical singer and a representative of the Agra gharana, Lalith J. Rao.

Also included in the award list are Prakash Khandge, Jagannath Bayan, Ramchandra Majhi, Saravjit Kaur, Sudip Gupta, Mukund Naik, among others.

They will be conferred the award by the President of India at a function in New Delhi.

The institution of Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards is now more than fifty years old and the large body of practitioners, gurus and scholars in the performing arts honoured by the Akademi represent the nation’s highest achievement in music, dance and drama.