Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to people in the field of performing arts. In 2003, the award consisted of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram (a shawl), and a tamrapatra (a brass plaque). Since 2009, the cash prize has been increased to ₹1,000,000. The awards are given in the categories of music, dance, theatre, other traditional arts and puppetry, and for contribution/scholarship in performing arts. Award recipients The recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in various categories of performing arts have been listed below: Music Hindustani music Vocal 1952 – Mushtaq Hussain Khan 1953 – Kesarbai Kerkar 1954 – Rajab Ali Khan 1955 – Anant Manohar Joshi 1956 – Rajabhaiyya Poonchhwale 1957 – Rasoolan Bai 1958 – Ganesh Ramachandra Behere 1959 – Krishnarao Shankar Pandit 1960 – Altaf Hussain Khan 1961 – Y. S. Mirashi Buwa 1962 – Bade Ghulam Ali Khan 1963 – Omkarnath Thakur 1964 – Rahimuddin Khan Dagar 1965 – Hirabai Barodekar 1966 – Siddheswari Devi 1967 – Amir Khan 1968 – Mogubai Kurdikar 1969 – Ramchatur Mallick 1970 – Nisar Hussain Khan 1971 – Mallikarjun Mansur 1972 – Begum Akhtar 1973 – Gangubai Hangal 1974 – Kumar Gandharva 1975 – Bhimsen Joshi 1975-76 Gavri Devi (Vocal) (Jodhpur, Rajasthan) 1976 – Narayanrao Vyas 1977 – Girija Devi 1978 – Khadim Hussain Khan 1979 – Sarachchandra Arolkar 1980 – Nivruttibua Sarnaik 1981 – Basavaraj Rajguru 1982 – Vasantrao Deshpande 1983 – Mahadev Prasad Mishra 1984 – Sharafat Hussain Khan 1985 – Kishori Amonkar, Aminuddin Dagar 1986 – Gavri Devi (Vocal) (Jodhpur, Rajasthan) 1986 – Asgari Bai, Firoz Dastur, Manik Varma 1987 – C. R. Vyas, Shobha Gurtu, Pandit Jasraj 1988 – Padmavati Gokhale Shaligram 1989 – Jitendra Abhisheki 1990 – K. G. Ginde, Dhondutai Kulkarni 1991 – N. Zahiruddin Dagar, Prabha Atre 1992 – Ramarao V. Naik, Shiv Kumar Shukla 1993 – Bala Saheb Poochwale, Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar 1994 – Sulochana Brahaspati, Zia Fariddudin Dagar 1995 – A. Kanan 1996 – Dinkar Kaikini, Hafeez Ahmed Khan 1997 – L. K. Pandit 1998 – Puttaraj Gawaigalu, Parveen Sultana, Rajan and Sajan Mishra 1999–2000 – Ajoy Chakraborty, Rita Ganguly, Malabika Kanan 2001 – Abhay Narayan Mallick, Sangameshwar Gurav, Malini Rajurkar 2002 – Sushila Rani Patel,