BHUBANESWAR: Odia singer Susmita Das received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award-2021 in the Sugam Sangeet category from President Droupadi Murmu this week.She is the only Odia singer to get the prestigious award in the category. “To be felicitated with this award fills me with a lot of love and gratitude for my country, and I only hope this serves as inspiration for others and especially girls to pursue their dreams of the arts fearlessly and with passion,” she said. Last year, her Hindi music video ‘Prithvi Manthan’ was featured on the UN website from India.
Apart from Susmita, four other artistes received the Akademi awards for both 2020 and 2021. Odissi dancer Rabindra Atibudhi and Chhau dancer Trilochan Mohanta received the award for the year 2020. Similarly for 2021, Bijay Kumar Jena got the award for dance and Manoj Pattnaik for theatre direction. All the awardees received a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh, a ‘tamrapatra’ and an ‘angavastram’ each from President Murmu in an event held at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi.