Sriram Kartik, a fifteen-year-old Class X student from Powai, Mumbai, has won 10 awards at the 70th annual music competition. The competition was organised by the Sri Shanmukhananda Bharatiya Sangeetha Vidyalaya and Natya Vidyalaya. The young musician excelled in both Mrudangam and Carnatic vocal, earning recognition across multiple categories.

The awards were presented during the Carnataka Sangeetha Pon Mazhai Thiruvizha on August 23, 2026, at the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha in Matunga. Popular Carnatic vocalist Vidwan Sikkil Gurucharan presided over the ceremony. He also honoured Sriram for his achievement.

Sriram secured nine individual prizes, including three second-place awards, five first-place finishes and one third-place recognition. He also received a cash prize after being named Best Junior contestant, awarded to the participant in the 10-to-15 age group with the highest number of wins.

The competition, held on February 7 and 8, attracted over 300 participants from abroad and India. The vocal achievements of Sriram included top honours for compositions by Purandaradasa kritis, the Trinity, varnams and Tamil compositions by Subramania Bharatiyar. In mrudangam, he won first place for tani avartanam in misra chapu talams and roopakam and secured second place in adi talam.

Balancing music with his IGCSE studies, Sriram practises daily for around three hours. At five, under Vidwan Mumbai Shri Shankaranarayanan, he started learning mrudangam and prepared nearly 50 pieces for the competition.

He now receives advanced mridangam training from Vidwan Dr Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, while his vocal mentors include Dr Mohana Sharma and Dr K.N. Renganatha Sharma. A CCRT Scholarship recipient, Sriram also completed his mridangam arangetram in 2025.