
The President of India Ram Nath Kovind approved the conferment of 128 Padma Awards this year, on the eve of the 73rd Republic Day. The ceremony will be held on January 26, 2022. This year, the list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushans (the second-highest civilian award), 17 Padma Bhushans (the third-highest civilian award) and 107 Padma Shris (the fourth-highest civilian award).
Here’s what you need to know about the awardees from the art world, which includes music, painting, sculpture, photography, cinema, theatre, etc. Read on.
Vocalist Prabha Atre has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan. Belonging to the Kirana gharana, the 89-year-old holds a world record for releasing 11 books on music in Hindi and English from a single stage at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on April 18, 2016. The singer, who has a bachelor of science degree from Ferguson College in Pune and one from the Law College in the university there, said music was not a priority and just a “matter of chance”. She established the ‘Swarmayee Gurukul’ to teach students all over the world in both the ‘guru-shishya parampara’ and as well as the institutional tradition.

Victor Banerjee has been awarded the Padma Bhushan. The actor has appeared in Bengali, Assamese, Hindi and English films, and worked with the likes of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Roman Polanski, James Ivory, among others.
Gurmeet Bawa, a Punjabi language folk singer, who passed away on November 21, 2021, received the Padma Bhushan award posthumously. She was hailed as ‘Lambi hek di malika’, for she could hold a hek (a breathless high tone opening in Punjabi folk) for about 45 seconds.
Rashid Khan has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan. The 53-year-old is a Hindustani classical musician belonging to the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana. He received the Padma Shri and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2006.
There are 29 Padma Shri awardees in art this year, which includes the internationally-renowned Kathak duo Kamalini Asthana and Nalini Asthana, who represent the Benaras Gharana of Kathak.
Other Padma Shri awardees include Madhuri Barthwal, a folk singer from Uttarakhand, who was the first woman music composer in All India Radio. She is also the first female Garhwali musician who became a music teacher. Then, there is S Ballesh Bhajantri from Tamil Nadu, a shehnai player and also a Patiala gharana Hindustani vocalist; Khandu Wangchuk Bhutia from Sikkim, a Thanka artist; celebrated singer Sulochana Chavan (88), famous for her lavanis in Marathi; Lourembam Bino Devi from Manipur, recognised for preserving the Leeba textile art for over five decades; singer Shyamamani Devi from Odisha; folk artist Arjun Singh Dhurve from Madhya Pradesh; Rajasthan’s Chandraprakash Dwivedi, a film director and script writer, best known for directing the 1991 television epic ‘Chanakya‘; posthumous awardee Gosaveedu Shaik Hassan, a renowned player of the instrument nadaswaram; actor Sowcar Janaki; H R Keshavamurthy, a Gamaka exponent; Shivnath Mishra, a sitarist and exponent of the Benares gharana; folk singer Darshanam Mogilaiah; Kongampattu A V Murugaiyan, a Thavil exponent; R Muthukannammal from Tamil Nadu; Tsering Namgyal from Ladakh; A K C Natarajan, a Carnatic music clarinet player.
Other awardees are: singer Sonu Nigam; dancer Ram Sahay Panday; Sheesh Ram from Uttar Pradesh; folk artist Ramachandraiah; Kuchipudi dancer Padmaja Reddy; nautanki singer and katha vachak Ram Dayal Sharma; Kaajee Singh from West Bengal; doll-maker Konsam Ibomcha Singh from Manipur; singer Ajita Srivastava; Lalita Vakil, a handkerchief embroiderist; and Durga Bai Vyam, an artist working in the Gond tradition of tribal art.
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