A total of eleven artistes from Assam have been awarded Sangeet Nataka Academy Award and Ustad Bismillah Khan Youth Award for 2024 and 2025, one of the most prestigious performing arts awards in India. The awards are presented by the National Academy of Performing Arts of India (NAPERI) for contributions in various fields such as satriya dance, kathak, drama, folk music, khol playing and nokari singing.
According to the list, the recipients of the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2025 include eminent dramatist Chetna Das, choreographer Mallika Kandali and sculptor Jyoti Ojha. The 2024 awards were presented to Prem Oja Barbayan for his contribution to Satriya dance and to Vipul Chandra Das for Kathak dance.
Veteran actress Chetna Das said that she was able to get this award because of the love from the people of Assam. Her career began in Tezpur, where she won her first Best Actress award. He reverently recalls that teachers guided and supported them like parents.
Similarly, Prem Oja Barbayan, who at the age of six joined Kamalbari Satara in Majuli, one of the main centers of Satriya dance, did not have an easy journey to national recognition. Recalling his past, he says that in Satara he had to do various tasks, from washing dishes to cleaning the premises, which were very difficult for him and that is why he ran away four times. But each time his father brought him back to explain that this discipline would shape his future. “It was those tough days that shaped my life and that’s why I got this award today,” he said.
Along with senior artistes, six young artistes from Assam have been selected for the Ustad Bismillah Khan Youth Award, which recognizes emerging talent in the field of performing arts. The 2024 awards went to Meenakshi Medhi for Satria Dance, Dilip Heera for Folk Music and Vidyut Kumar Nath for Theater Direction. The 2025 Youth Award went to Niranjan Shaikia Barbayan for Satriya Dance, Devjit Shaikia for Khol Playing and Heerakjyoti Sharma for Nokari Song.
Covering classical dance, folk tradition, musical instruments and theatre, this extensive list of award winners reaffirms the diverse artistic practices across the state of the Brahmaputra Valley’s folk music tradition from Satra in Majuli. The award is expected to bring a new impetus to the cultural sector of the state.