Winners of 2018 Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar announced

The Sangeet Natak Akademi on Tuesday announced the names of 32 young Indian artistes conferred the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2018.

Named after the shehnai maestro, the award is presented to artistes aged below 40 years with the objective of identifying and encouraging outstanding young talent in diverse fields of performing arts and giving them national recognition early in their life.

It carries a cash amount of Rs 25,000 and will be presented at a special ceremony.

In the field of music, the recipients are Sameehan Kashalkar and Ruchira Kedar (Hindustani vocal), Dhruv Bedi (sitar), Shubh Maharaj (tabla), Sandeep Narayan (Carnatic vocal), J.B. Sruthi Sagar (flute), R. Sridhar (violin) and M.D. Pallavi (Bhava Sangeet).

In dance, Vijna Rani Vasudevan and Rajith Babu have won a joint award for Bharatanatyam, Durgesh Gangani for Kathak, Kalamandalam Vaisakh for Kathakali, Manju Elangbam for Manipuri, Madhulita Mohapatra for Odissi, Anjali Borbora Borthakur for Sattriya, Rakesh Sai Babu for Chhau and Vikram Mohan for contemporary dance.

In the field of theatre, the seven recipients are: Chavan Pramod R. (Direction), Namrata Sharma, Sunil Palwal and Preeti Jha Tiwari (Acting), Kuldeep Patgiri (Mime), Subhadeep Guha (Music for Theatre) and Kalamandalam Sajith Vijayan (Kutiyattam).

For folk and traditional music, the prize winners are Chandan Tiwari (Bihar), A Aneshori Devi (Manipur), Madhushree Haital (West Bengal), Manoj Kumar Das (Assam) and Ashok Kumar (Uttar Pradesh).

Dinesh Kumar Jangde has won it for Chhattisgarh's Panthi dance, Chandani Mansing Zala for Gujarat's puppetry, and P. Rajkumar for Tamil Nadu's folk dance.