Hindustani classical musician and Bansuri maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia and journalist-turned-writer and entrepreneur Hindol Sengupta have been chosen for the Dr. Pinnamaneni and Smt.Seetha Devi Foundation Award this year.
The award will be given to the duo jointly on December 16, the birth anniversary of noted surgeon and son of the soil Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao after whom the award is named.
Mr Chaurasia won the Padma Vibhushan Award in 2000 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1984. The musician has several national and international awards and honours to his credit.
Mr Chaurasia’s flute renditions were used in the Telugu film “Sirivennela” music for which was directed by K.V. Mahadevan.
He composed pieces of music along with Santoor player Shivkumar Sharma for a list of Hindi films including Chandni, Darr, Lamhe, Silsila, Faasle, Vijay and Sahibaan.
Mr Chaurasia is the second Hindustani musician to be given the award, with the first being, tabala player Zakir Hussain. Others from the music world to be given the award are K .J. Yesudas, Lata Mangeskar and S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. Other luminaries that were given the prestigious award are former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, father of the white revolution Verghese Kurien, woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi, scientists Prof C.N.R. Rao and M.S.Swaminathan and former RBI governor Y.V.Reddy. The second awardee Mr Sengupta is the youngest writer to be nominated for the prestigious Hayek Book Prize. He is probably the youngest to be given the Pinnamaneni Award too.
Hindustani classical musician Hariprasad Chaurasia won the Padma Vibhushan Award in 2000 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1984. He has several national and international awards and honours to his credit
journalist-turned-writer and entrepreneur Hindol Sengupta is the youngest writer to be nominated for the prestigious Hayek Book Prize
