The Tamil Nadu government has been conferring the prestigious Kalaimamani Award for the artists in Tamil Cinema and drama fields every year to honor their sheer brilliance towards the art. Kalaimamani Award is the highest state award bestowed to the artists every year by the state government who resplendent in their roles and creations. In line with that, the state government has on Friday announced the list of awardees for the award for 2021. 

Some of the reputed celebrities picked for the award include Sivakarthikeyan, Aishwarya Rajesh, Yogi Babu, Gautam Menon, Kalaipuli S Thanu, and Ishari Ganesh. The awardees will receive a 24-gram gold medal along with a certificate. The Kalaimamani Awards are given by the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nadaka Mantram, which comes under the Directorate of Art and Culture and the award is to honor and recognize the artists in the state for their achievements in various disciplines. 

The following is the list of awardees and their disciplines for the Kalaimamani Award 2021, 

Actors:  Sivakarthikeyan, Aishwarya Rajesh, Yogi Babu, Saroja Devi, Sowcar Janaki, Nithya, Sangeetha,      Ramarajan, Nandhakumar, Devadarshini, Shanthi Williams, and Madhumitha. 

Directors: Gautam Menon, Manoj Kumar, Ravi Mariya, Liaquat Ali Khan.

Music Directors: Imman and Dhina

Lyricists: Kamakodiyan and Kahalmadhi

Producers: Ishari Ganesh and Kalaipuli S Thanu

Singers: Sujatha and Ananthu

Editor: Antony

Dialogue Writer: V Prabhakar

Cameraman: Ragunaatha Reddy

Still Photographer: Sitrarasu

Stunt Choreographers: Dinesh and Jaguar Thangam

Choreographers: Master Sivasankar and Master Sridhar 

Makeup artist: Shanmugam and Sabarigirisan

PRO: Singaaravelu

Costume Designer: Rajendran 

The Kalaimamani Award was first awarded in 1954 by the Tamil Nadu Government and some of the notable personalities who conferred with the award include Padmini (1958), late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa (1972), Vyjayanthimala (1979), Kamal Haasan, and Sripriya (1980), Rajinikanth (1984), Sarathkumar (1994), AR Rahman (1995), KS Chitra (1997), Vijay, Meena, Napolean, and Thangar Bachan (1998), Vijayakanth (2001), Ajith (2009), Devayani, Anushka, Nayanthara, and Tamannaah (2010), Prabhu Deva (2015), Sasikumar, MS Bhaskar, Thambi Ramaiah, and Soori (2016), Vijay Sethupathi, Priyamani, Singamuthu (2017), and Srikanth and Santhanam (2018). The Tamil Nadu government has appointed music director Deva and Chitra Visweswaran as the Chairman and Secretary for Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Manram respectively and this body has picked the awardees for 2021.