THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Stage craftsman and director Soorya Krishnamoorthy has been selected for the maiden Vishwakalaratna International Award instituted by the expatriate Kerala organisation Bahrain Kerala Samajam. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh and a statute.
The award will be distributed to him on Friday. However, Krishnamoorthy has decided to donate the prize money to help the homeless build homes. “I see the Vishwakalaratna award as a great recognition for my artistic career that lasted for a few years. The prize amount will be donated to a project by the expatriates to build houses for the poor. The houses are being designed by architect G Shankar,” he said.
When he was the chairman of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, he started a special ‘Pravasi Akademi’ section for expatriates for the first time in history and nurturing the art of expatriates through it. According to the organisers, this is like a lifetime achievement award for Soorya Krishnamoorthy’s fifty years of contribution to art.
The award was decided by a jury consisting of writer Benjamin, architect G Shankar, and Bahrain Kerala Samajam president P V Radhakrishna Pillai. Krishnamoorthy is the founder of the biggest cultural society in Asia, the Soorya Stage and Film Society which has 30,000 members across the globe. Soorya’s branches in forty countries has spread Indian arts. He was also Limca Book of World Records Man of the Year 2003.
Besides staging programmes in Gulf countries at regular intervals, Soorya also conducts a 75-day festival every year in the state capital, the largest and longest cultural festival in Asia as listed by the Limca Book of World Records. He was the youngest recipient of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship, its highest honour, in 1994, and went on to receive 49 awards and recognitions instituted by governments and organisations in India and abroad.