CHENNAI: The State government, on Thursday, announced the Kalaimamani awards after a gap of eight years. This year, 201 artistes are to receive the awards, including popular actor Vijay Sethupathi.
The government also announced the ‘Bharathi’ awards in the field of literature, ‘MS Subbulakshmi award’ in music and ‘Bala Saraswathi award’ in dance.
For the MS Subbulakshmi award, singers S Janaki, the Bombay sisters — C Saroja and C Lalitha and TV Gopalakrishnan have been selected. Awards will be given away by the Chief Minister.
Poet and lyricist Pulamaipithan, veteran Villupattu artiste and lyricist Subbu Arumugam and writer-activist Sivasankari have been selected for the Bharathi award. For the Bala Saraswathi award, Vyjayanthimala, VP Dhananjayan and CV Chandrasekhar have been selected.
A statement from the government said a full list of the recipients of this year’s awards is available at the web address www.tn.gov.in/ta/go_view/dept/32 .
An official statement said, “Each winning artist will receive a 3 sovereign gold shield and a certificate.”
In addition, shields for the best art organisations are to be awarded to Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai, Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai and the Salem Amateur Arts in Salem.
Here's the complete list of these awardees by year:
2011
Actors - R Rajasekar, P. Rajiv alias P Rajasekar, Kutti Padmini, P Pandu
Choreographer - Puliyur Saroja
Playback Singer - B S Sasirekha
Costume Designer - P Kasi
2012
Actors - S S Senbagamuthu, T Rajashri, B R Varalakshmi
Playback Singer - Gana Ulaganathan
Director - Chitra Lakshmanan
Cinematographer - Babu alias N V Anandakrishnan
2013
Playback Singer - R Krishnaraj, Paravai Muniyamma, T Velmurugan
Actors - Prasanna, Nalini, R Pandiyarajan, Kumari Kanchana Devi, Sarada, T P Gajendran
Stunt Master - Judo K K Rathnam
2014
Actors - Ponvannan
Director - Suresh Krishna
Playback Singer - Malathi
Choreographer - N A Thara
2015
Actors - Madhu Balaji, Prabhudheva
Directors - A N Pavithran
Music director - Vijay Antony
Lyricist - Yugabharathi
Cinematographer - R Rathinavelu
Playback Singer - Gana Bala
2016
Actors - Sasikumar, MS Bhaskar, Thambi Ramaiah, Suri
2017
Actors - Vijay Sethupathi, Priyamani, Singamuthu
Director - Hari
Music director - Yuvan Shankar Raja
Producer - Kalaignanam
Photography - Seshadri Nathan Sugumaran, Stills Ravi
2018
Actors - Srikanth, Santhanam
Producer - A M Rathnam
Cinematographer - Ravivarman
Playback Singer - Unni Menon
(With inputs from cinemaexpress.com)