CHENNAI: Noted bharathanatyam exponent Sudharani Raghupathy was conferred with the Mudhra Award for Excellence by former Chief Election Commissioner and chairman of Kalakshetra N Gopalaswami at the inauguration of the 20th Mudhra Fine Arts Festival recently.
The award included a citation, shawl and cash prize of `1 lakh instituted by P Vijayakumar Reddy and Preetha Reddy. Addressing the crowd, industrialist and president of Mudhra, Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti, said that sabhas played a significant role in preserving culture and tradition, and Chennai could boast of initiating more number of kutcheris and dance recitals than any other city, ahead of Margazhi. Speaking on the occasion at Ramakrishna Mission School, T Nagar, Gopalaswami said that it was an honour to present the award to Sudharani, who had rendered outstanding service in the field of classical dance.
Accepting the award, Sudharani said that steps must be taken to recognise aged performing artistes. “It’s a great thing to see an artiste appreciating another artiste, which is a rare quality,” she said, referring to the Mudhra couple.
Vice-president A Natarajan, secretary Mudhra Bhaskar, treasurer Radha Bhaskar, danseuse Padma Subrahmanyam, singer Vani Jayaram and theatre artiste Kaathadi Ramamurthy were present among others. The award ceremony was followed by a violin duet by Akkarai Sisters (Subhalakshmi and Sornalatha).
The 20th Mudhra Fine Arts Festival will be on till January 4, 2015.