Shekhawat Hosts Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for 2024 and 2025
Synopsis
Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat presided over the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards Ceremony on 13 August 2026, recognising outstanding contributions to music, dance and drama for both 2024 and 2025 in a combined edition.
Key Takeaways
The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards Ceremony for 2024 and 2025 was held on 13 August 2026 .
Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat presided over the event and shared a live stream on X.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi was established in 1953 and its awards were instituted in 1952 , making them among India's oldest performing-arts honours.
The ceremony covered artists across classical, folk and contemporary music, dance and theatre traditions.
A combined two-year ceremony is notable and signals an effort to clear pending recognition cycles for performing artists.
Full awardee lists and any related cultural-scheme announcements are expected to follow the ceremony.
India's finest performing artists gathered under one roof on 13 August 2026 as Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat presided over the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards Ceremony honouring excellence across music, dance and drama for both 2024 and 2025.
The ceremony, streamed live, brought together awardees from classical, folk and contemporary traditions — a rare double edition that recognised two years of outstanding contribution to India's performing arts in a single sitting.
India's oldest performing-arts honour, now in its seventh decade
The Sangeet Natak Akademi, established in 1953 under the Ministry of Culture, is India's apex body for music, dance and theatre. Its awards — instituted in 1952 — are among the oldest and most prestigious national honours in the performing arts, recognising artists who have shaped and sustained living traditions across the country's vast cultural geography. Over the decades the awards have spanned Hindustani and Carnatic music, Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri, Kuchipudi, folk theatre forms such as Yakshagana and Tamasha, and contemporary experimental work — a breadth that mirrors the Akademi's founding mandate to protect and promote the full spectrum of Indian performance.A double-year ceremony and what it signals
Combining the 2024 and 2025 award cycles into a single ceremony is notable. The Ministry of Culture has periodically consolidated recognition events, and doing so here ensures that artists who waited through administrative cycles are honoured without further delay — a gesture the performing-arts community has long advocated for. The full list of awardees for both years is expected to be released in the wake of the ceremony, and any accompanying announcements on cultural schemes or Akademi policy will be closely watched by practitioners and institutions across the country. For Minister Shekhawat, the event underscores the BJP-led government's stated commitment to elevating India's cultural institutions as pillars of soft power and national identity — a theme that has run through Ministry of Culture programming in recent years.Point of View
Chairing the event reinforces his ministry's positioning of India's classical and folk traditions as instruments of cultural diplomacy and national identity. The Akademi's enduring role as the apex body for performing arts gives this ceremony weight beyond the awards themselves — it signals the state's continued investment in institutional frameworks that sustain living heritage. Watch for the full awardee list: the balance between classical and folk, regional and pan-Indian artists, will reveal the Ministry's current cultural priorities.
NationPress
13 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards ceremony?
The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are India's premier national honours for performing artists, instituted in 1952 and presented by the Sangeet Natak Akademi — the apex body for music, dance and drama established in 1953 under the Ministry of Culture.
Who presided over the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2024 2025?
Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat presided over the combined 2024 and 2025 Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards Ceremony held on 13 August 2026.
Why were the 2024 and 2025 Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards held together?
The Ministry of Culture combined both award cycles into a single ceremony on 13 August 2026, a move aimed at recognising artists from both years without further administrative delay.
What art forms does the Sangeet Natak Akademi recognise?
The Akademi recognises excellence across classical and folk music, classical dance forms such as Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi, theatre traditions including folk forms like Yakshagana and Tamasha, and contemporary performing arts.
Where can I watch the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards 2026 live?
Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat shared a live stream link on his official X account on 13 August 2026 for the ceremony covering the 2024 and 2025 awards.
