Theatre artiste Juhi Babbar receiving the "Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2009" from Sangeet Natak Akademi acting Chairman Ratan Thiyam in New Delhi on August 10, 2010.
The awards were presented by the acting chairman of the academy, Mr Ratan Thiyam, at a function, which also marked the beginning of a week-long festival of performances by the award-winning artistes.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi is India's national academy for music, dance and drama. It instituted the awards in 2006 in the memory of shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, who had died in August that year. They are given to young artistes, below the age of 35 years, who have made a mark in their fields of performing arts. The award carries prize money of Rs 25,000.
The "puraskar" is meant to encourage outstanding young talents and give them national recognition early in life so that they may work with greater commitment and dedication in life-long pursuit of their chosen artform.
Nine artistes were given eight puraskars, including one jointly, in the field of music. They are Omkar Shrikant Dadarkar for Hindustani Vocal; Murad Ali (Sarangi), and Sanjeev Shankar and Ashwani Shankar (Joint Award in Shehnai) for Hindustani Instrumental Music; C.S. Sajeev for Carnatic Vocal; Mysore A Chandan Kumar (Flute) and Trivandrum V Balaji (Mridangam) for Carnatic Instrumental Music; Anil Srinivasan for Creative & Experimental Music; Moirangthem Meina Singh for Other Major Traditions of Music – Nata Sankirtana of Manipur.
In the field of dance, eight artistes --Ragini Chander Shekar, Bharatanatyam; Monisa Nayak, Kathak; Hanglem Indu Devi, Manipuri; Chinta Ravi Balakrishna, Kuchipudi; Lingaraj Pradhan, Odissi; Menaka P P Bora, Sattriya; Manjula B Murthy, Mohiniattam and Swamimalai K Suresh, Music for Dance (Bharatanatyam Nattuvangam & Vocal) -- were the recipients of the awards.
The awards for theatre went to Abanti Chakraborty and Sukracharjya Rabha for Direction; Mukta Vasant Barve, Palani Murugan and Teekam Chandra Joshi for Acting; Milind Srivastava (Lighting) and Juhi Babbar (Costumes) for Allied Theatre Arts and S. Gobi (Bhagavata Mela of Tamil Nadu) for Major Traditions of Theatre.
For their talent in Other Traditional/Folk/Tribal Dance/Music/Theatre and Puppetry, Reshma Musale, Lavani & Tamasha (Maharastra); K Nellai Manikandan, Folk Dance (Tamil Nadu); Hmar Zohmingliana, Tribal Dance & Music (Mizoram); Takhellambam Shyamkanhai Singh, Wari Leeba (Manipur); T.R. Sooraj Nambiar, Kutiyattam (Kerala); Shah-e-Jahan Ahmad Bhagat, Bhand Pather (Jammu and Kashmir); Nazia Sayeed, Odissi Music (Orissa) and Lala Bhata, Kathputli (Rajasthan) were selected for the Puraskar.