Bhopal, May 13: Large-scale preparations are underway for Lata Mangeshkar Award ceremony. As many as 23 thespians have been given this prestigious award in the field of playback singing and music direction. This year's award is being bestowed on famous playback singer Nitin Mukesh. The four-day ceremony is going to be held at Indore from May 15. Free entry passes are being distributed at eight places. The ceremony would begin with state-level light music competition at Santosh Auditorium. From May 16 to 18, the spacious Nehru Auditorium will reverberate with the activities of the ceremony.

The award is alternately given to playback singing and music direction. Thespians like great music director the late Naushad Ali, the late Kishore Kumar, Manna De, Khayyam, Asha Bhosle, music director duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Ravindra Jain and AR Rehman are among 23 singers and music director who have received this award so far.

The recipients are bestowed the award at a grand function at Indore and light music programmes are organised in honour of the recipient. At this year's function playback singer Alka Yagnik would render songs on May 16, Sudesh Bhosle on May 17 and on May 18 the recipient Nitin Mukesh would himself come out with a presentation.

Recipients of Lata Mangeshkar Award

Naushad 1984-85

Kishore Kumar 1985-86

Jaidev 1986-87

Manna De 1987-88

Khayyam 1988-89

Asha Bhosle 1989-90

Laxmikant-Pyarelal 1990-91

Yesudas 1991-92

Rahul Dev Burman 1992-93

Sandhya Mukherjee 1993-94

Anil Biswas 1994-95

Talat Mehmood 1995-96

Kalyanji-Anandji 1996-97

Jagjit Singh 1997-98

Ilayya Raja 1998-99

SP Balasubramaniam 1999-2000

Bhupen Hazarika 2000-01

Mahendra Kapoor 2001-02

Ravindra Jain 2002-03

Suresh Wadkar 2003-04

AR Rehman 2004-05

Kavita Krishnamurthy 2005-06

Hridaynath Mangeshkar 2006-07