On Wednesday 25th October, Milapfest hosted the third annual National Indian Arts Awards ceremony at London’s Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. The awards acknowledge the hard work and dedication shown by recipients in promoting and nurturing Indian Arts in Britain. They also honour the rising stars in this field who are keeping such rich art forms flourishing in the UK.

Following a glittering reception, the ceremony saw the presentation of 10 very special awards to a range of artists, educators and pioneers in the field of Indian Arts. The night was topped off by an electrifying celebratory concert from Anil Srinivasan on piano, U-Rajesh on mandolin and Kousic Sen on tabla.

The evening was a huge success and we would like to thank all those who attended and who helped make the night such a great celebration of Indian Arts in the UK and internationally. We would also like to extend a warm thank you to Ashnaa Sasikaran for her wonderful opening Slokka performance. We are also very grateful to our very special guests for the evening, Baron Dholaki, OBE (Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords) and Kenneth Baird (Managing Director of European Opera Centre). We would also like to extend of thanks to our new media partners, Asian Business Publications Ltd. Group for joining us for the evening, and in particular CB Patel (Publisher and Editor of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar), Mrs Kokilaben Patel (Managing Editor) and Mr L George (CEO).

We are already looking forward to next years awards which will take place Thursday 14th June at the Southbank Centre, London. Nominations will open shortly for our 2018 awards.

Full List of Awardees

Samyo Musician of the Year – Ashnaa Sasikaran

Yuva Nritya Ratna Award – Dr Elena Catalano

Yuva Sangeet Ratna Award – Tarang

Milapfest Ensembles Award for Excellence – Jainee-Khushali Patel

Nritya Acharya Ratna Award (Bharatanatyam) – Dr Swati Raut

Nritya Acharya Ratna Award (Kathak/Odissi) – Sonia Sabri

Sangeet Acharya Ratna Award (Hindustani Music) – Chandrima Misra

Sangeet Acharya Ratna Award (Carnatic Music) – M Balachandar

Vishwa Kala Ratna Award – Dr Anita Ratnam

Lifetime Achievement Award – Nahid Siddiqui