Jayant Sawarkar to be honored for contribution in field of theater

Noted Marathi actor Jayant Sawarkar will be honoured with the Maharashtra government's Natvarya Prabhakar Panshikar Lifetime Achievement award in the field of theatre.

The Sangeetacharya Annasaheb Kirloskar Lifetime Achievement will be bestowed on tabla artist Vinayak Thorat. Culture Minister Vinod Tawde Monday said both awards comprise cash prizes of Rs 5 lakh, citation and memento each.

Sawarkar started his career in Marathi theatre as a backstage artist and got an opportunity in playwright Vijay Tendulkar's play "Manus Navache Bet".

His role as a clown in Acharya Atre's "Samrat Singh" made him popular. Thorat has accompanied top artists like Jitendra Abhishekhi, violin player D Datar, Mogubai Kurdikar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, Ram Marathe, Manik Verma and Jyostna Bhole.

Tawde said the dates of the presentation of the award will be announced soon.