3 June : Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National academy for Music, Dance and Drama has selected 33 young artists of India who have made a mark in their respective fields of performing arts for Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2008. Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar carries a purse money of Rs 25,000/- (Rupees twenty five thousand only). The Yuva Puraskar will be presented at a special ceremony, presided over by the Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi in the coming months.The Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, given to artistes below the age of 35 years, was introduced in the year 2006 with the objective of identifying and encouraging outstanding young talents in diverse fields of performing arts and giving them national recognition early in their life, so that they may work with greater commitment and dedication in their chosen fields. The names of the selected artists are as under:
Music – (Eight Puraskar)
Rajnish Mishra & Ritesh Mishra (Joint Puraskar) and Vishal Jain for Hindustani Vocal Music; Jai Shankar Mishra (Tabla), Debopriya Chatterjee (Flute) for Hindustani Instrumental Music; V.Sumitra and Manasi Prasad for Carnatic Vocal Music; C.S.Balabhaskar (Violin) and B.S.Purushotham (Kanjeera) for Carnatic Instrumental Music.
Dance – – (Eight Puraskar)
Gayatri Balagurunathan (Bharatanatyam), Gauri Diwakar (Kathak), Vijaykumar N. (Kathakali), Bimbavati Devi (Manipuri), Rahul Acharya (Odissi), Arunima Kumar (Kuchipudi), Meernanda Barthakur (Sattriya), and Purvadhanshree (Other Major Traditions of Dance – Vilasani Natyam).
Theatre -– (Eight Puraskar)
Sumit Sharma and Amitesh Grover for Direction, Vijender Kumar and J.L.Saritha for Acting, Irawati Karnik for Playwriting, Ajay Kumar for Allied Theatre Arts (Music for Theatre) and Govind Singh Yadav for Allied Theatre Arts (Lighting), R.K.Sanaton Singh for Major Traditions of Theatre – Shumang Leela of Manipur.
Other Traditional/Folk/Tribal Dance, Music, Theatre & Puppetry – – (Eight Puraskar)
Ritu Verma for Pandavani (Chhattisgarh), Dayaram for Mand (Rajasthan), Sayed Mohammad Irfan P P for Folk Music-Dolipattu (Lakshadweep), Mayanglambam Mangangangsana Meitei for Traditional Music-Pena (Manipur), Shabir Ahmed Saznawaz for Soofiyana Kalam (Jammu & Kashmir), Pramod Kumar Nahak for Prahlad Natak (Orissa), Sudarshan K.V. for Yakshagana Gombeyatta – Puppetry (Karnataka) and Srikanta Bose for Mime (West Bengal).