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Bhubaneswar, August 31: Four artistes have been chosen for the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra (GKCM) awards for the year. This was announced at a press meet here Wednesday.
Odissi dancers Rajib Bhattacharya from Kolkata and Madhusmita Mohanty have been selected for the NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Pratibha Samman, alongside Bharatnatyam dancer P Praveen Kumar from Bangalore and Odissi music exponent Rupak Kumar Parida.
The NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award-2016 for lifetime achievement will be presented to Jharana Das for her contribution to Oriya cinema and to Guru Kishor Kumar Mohanty for his contribution to dance.
The awards are to be presented at the GKCM Award Festival to be held from September 5 to 9 at Rabindra Mandap. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will attend the event.
Ratikant Mohapatra, the director of Srjan, which is organising the event, said: “We have been organising this festival for 21 years to expose audiences to classical dance of the highest order. We aspire to sensitise audiences, especially youngsters, so that they imbibe flavours of classicism.”
Each year, GCKM award is presented to dancers, musicians, theatre personalities and cinema artistes. It comprises a purse of `1 lakh (`50,000 previously) each and a citation. Two such awards are presented each year.
According to the organisers, the GKCM Yuva Pratibha Samman will be reinstituted with a cash prize of `25,000 each and will consider outstanding continuous performance in classical dances and Odissi music.
One other award has been introduced from this year to recognise devoted commitment to Odissi dance. “We have included the ‘Nrutya Kala Samman’ with a purse of `30,000, which will be given to Madhubrata Satapathy,” Ratikant said.
The five-day festival will witness exceptional performances by seven artistes. Renowned artistes from within and outside the state will perform at the festival. There will be a special Odissi presentation by Srjan titled ‘Tyaaga’, which has been choreographed and composed by Ratikant Mohapatra and is an adaptation of Oriya Geetinatya, employing its typical musical and theatrical elements.
The composition is based on the popular drama ‘Lakhyahira’ by Kartik Ghosh. The script and lyrics have been prepared by Jaydev Das and the music is by Laxmikant Palit.
