Prominent dancer and choreographer Jatin Goswami, who is known as an exponent of Sattriya dance, has been selected for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow or Akademi Ratna awards along with three other eminent personalities of the country.
Born on August 2, 1933 to Dharanidhar Dev Goswami and Chandraprova Devi at Adhar Sattra near Dergaon in upper Assam’s Golaghat district, Goswami is the founder director of Sattriya Akademi, Guwahati and a former member of the general council of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
He was awarded with the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2008, for his contributions to Sattriya dance.
Along with Goswami, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, dancer Sonal Mansingh and Bharatnatyam exponent K. Kalyanasundaram Pillai have also beem selected for Akademi Ratna awards.
Sattriya dance artiste Tankeswar Hazarika Borbayan and mask artiste Hem Chandra Goswami have been selected for Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2018.
The General Council of the Akademi has selected 44 artistes from across the country from the field of music, dance, theatre, traditional / folk / tribal music / dance / theatre, puppetry and overall contribution / scholarship in the performing arts for the Akademi Awards for the year 2018.
Dancer Anjali Borbora Borthakur (Sattriya) and musician Manoj Kumar Das (Folk and traditional music) have been chosen for Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2018.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi has announced the names of 32 young Indian artistes for the award. It carries a cash amount of Rs 25,000 and will be presented at a special ceremony.
The Akademi decided on the names at its meeting held on June 26 in Guwahati.
The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and a rare honour, which is restricted to 40 numbers at any given time, it said in a press statement on Tuesday.
The Akademi Awards, conferred since 1952, not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievements, but also recognize sustained individual work and contribution, it said.
The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs 3 lakh while the Akademi Award carries Rs 1 lakh, besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram.
Awards will be conferred by the President of India at a special investiture ceremony.