President of India Presents Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2017

New Delhi: The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for the year 2017 at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan today (February 06, 2019).

Forty-two artists from the fields including Music, Dance, Theatre, Traditional, Folk, and Tribal music were awarded. Eleven eminent artists were selected in the field of Music. They include Lalith J Rao, Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha in the field of Hindustani Vocal music and MS Sheela in Carnatic music.

Nine artists were awarded in Dance category including Ramakrishna Talukdar for Sattriya and Rama Vaidyanathan for Bharatnatyam. Nine artists were chosen for the award in Theatre.
Ten artists were awarded in the category of Traditional, Folk and Tribal Music. Vijay Verma and Sandhya Purecha were awarded for their overall contribution to the Performing Arts. The award carries a cash prize of one lakh rupees, a Tamrapatra and Angavastram.