Scheme of Conferring 'Kalaichemmal' Awards

What is the Kalaichemmal award?

Kalaichemmal is the highest honour the Government of Tamil Nadu confers on painters and sculptors. The Department of Art and Culture administers it through the Oviya Nunkalaikkuzhu, its fine arts wing, and the department's own description is direct: "The Government of Tamil Nadu honours talented Traditional Contemporary Painters and Sculptors with 'Kalaichemmal Awards'."

Each awardee receives:

• a citation plaque,
• a cash award of Rs 1,00,000 (Rupees one lakh), and
• a certificate.

Six eminent artists are awarded every year. The award is deliberately narrow, Kalaichemmal is not a general artists' honour but a recognition of meritorious service in the fields of painting and sculpture, across both traditional art and contemporary art.

How many have received it. According to the Department of Art and Culture's Policy Note for 2025-26, 36 eminent artists from traditional art forms and 67 eminent artists from contemporary art forms have been conferred with this title; 103 artists in total since the award began. Compared with the 1,924 artistes who have received the Kalaimamani, that number tells you how selective Kalaichemmal is.

The 2024-25 round. In the year 2024-25, Kalaichemmal Awards were conferred on 6 eminent artists with a citation plaque and a cash award of Rs 1,00,000 each by the Honourable Chief Minister on 6 March 2025.

The word is usually transliterated Kalaichemmal and occasionally Kalai Chemmal; both refer to the same award.

Who is eligible for the Kalaichemmal award, and who is not eligible?

You can be considered if:

• You are a painter or a sculptor. The award is confined to these two fields.
• Your work belongs to traditional art or contemporary art in Tamil Nadu. Traditional art here includes temple sculpture in the sthapathi tradition, Tanjore painting and allied forms; contemporary art covers modern painting and sculpture.
• You are an eminent artist with a body of work and a record of meritorious service in your field: exhibitions held, commissions executed, students trained, restoration or documentation carried out.
• You are an artist of Tamil Nadu.

You cannot receive Kalaichemmal if:

• You work in a performing art. Musicians, dancers, drama artistes, folk performers and cinema artistes are not eligible for Kalaichemmal and should look at Kalaimamani, which covers eyal, isai, natakam, natiyam, cinema, isai natakam, folk arts, television and related arts, and carries a gold medal of five sovereigns (40 grams) and a certificate of appreciation.
• You are early in your career. Kalaichemmal recognises eminence built over a working life. A younger painter or sculptor should enter the State Level Art Exhibition, where 30 senior-category artists above thirty years receive Rs 15,000 each and 20 junior-category artists below thirty receive Rs 10,000 each.
• You are looking for financial relief. Kalaichemmal is an honour, not a welfare payment. An artist in indigent circumstances should approach the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram, which sanctions Rs 3,000 per month to aged indigent artistes and Porkizhi worth Rs 1,00,000 to senior Kalaimamani awardees living in indigent circumstances.
• You are outside Tamil Nadu.

There is no income condition, no community condition and no formal qualification requirement. A self-taught temple sculptor and a Master of Fine Arts from the Government College of Fine Arts stand on the same footing.

How to apply for or be considered for the Kalaichemmal award

The Department of Art and Culture does not publish a year-round application form for Kalaichemmal, because the award is conferred by the Government on selection rather than claimed. The practical route is therefore to become visible to the department:

1. Register as an artist with the Department of Art and Culture. The department runs an online registration for individual fine artists and for arts groups at artandculture.tn.gov.in, and registration is the record the department works from.
2. Obtain an artist identification card. The department has issued 86,050 identification cards, which give the holder priority in government cultural programmes, access to departmental financial assistance and travel concessions.
3. Exhibit at the State Level Art Exhibition conducted by the Oviya Nunkalaikkuzhu. Works are chosen by a selection committee constituted by the Government, and this exhibition is the department's main window onto working painters and sculptors.
4. Build the documented record — a catalogue of works, photographs, exhibition listings, commissions, publications, students trained, and earlier awards including District Art Awards and state exhibition prizes.
5. Seek recommendations from a Government College of Fine Arts, an art society, a traditional sthapathi body, the District Art Society at your collectorate, or the Regional Cultural Centre serving your district.
6. Submit your profile to the Oviya Nunkalaikkuzhu at the Department of Art and Culture, Chennai, with the full record, and ask to be considered when the year's Kalaichemmal selection is taken up.
7. Follow the department's announcements on artandculture.tn.gov.in, where the Kalaichemmal page and the state awards page carry the current position.

What documents are required?

How Kalaichemmal fits with the other honours for artists in Tamil Nadu

Reading the table from the bottom upwards is the realistic career path: a District Art Award, then a prize at the State Level Art Exhibition, then Kalaichemmal.

Why artists are passed over, and what actually helps

• No documented record. A sculptor who has carved for thirty years in a temple town and never catalogued the work is invisible to a state selection process. Photograph and catalogue everything.
• Never registered with the department. Registration and the artist identification card are how the department knows an artist exists.
• Never exhibited at state level. The State Level Art Exhibition is the department's own screen, and a record of selection there is the strongest supporting fact.
• Wrong award sought. Performing artistes should pursue Kalaimamani; painters and sculptors early in their careers, the exhibition prizes.
• Only six awards a year. Even a strong record may wait several years. This is not a rejection so much as arithmetic.

Where to ask and where to complain

• State level: the Oviya Nunkalaikkuzhu, the fine arts wing of the Department of Art and Culture, which administers Kalaichemmal and the State Level Art Exhibition.
• Department: the Department of Art and Culture through the contact page at artandculture.tn.gov.in, which also hosts the Kalaichemmal awards page.
• Regional level: the Regional Cultural Centres at Chennai, Kancheepuram, Thanjavur, Madurai, Salem, Tirunelveli, Tiruchirappalli and Coimbatore.
• District level: the District Art Society at your collectorate, chaired by the District Collector.

No fee is charged, and no intermediary can secure a Kalaichemmal. The award is conferred by the Government and presented, as in 2024-25, by the Chief Minister.

How to check your application status

Kalaichemmal has no application-tracking portal, no acknowledgement number and no online dashboard, because there is no application to track: the Government confers the award on artists it selects through the Oviya Nunkalaikkuzhu, not on candidates who submit a claim and wait for a decision. What an artist who has registered or submitted a profile can actually check is different, and it works like this:

1. Confirm your registration went through. If you registered as an individual fine artist or as part of an arts group with the Department of Art and Culture at artandculture.tn.gov.in, follow up with the department to confirm the registration is on record and your artist identification card has been issued. The card number is the only "status" the system generates for an individual artist.
2. Check whether your profile reached the Oviya Nunkalaikkuzhu. If you submitted your biodata, catalogue of works and evidence of meritorious service to be considered for Kalaichemmal, write to or call the Department of Art and Culture (contact page at artandculture.tn.gov.in/contact-us) and ask whether your submission is on file with the fine arts wing ahead of the year's selection.
3. Watch the department's own announcements rather than expecting a personal update. The Kalaichemmal awards page and the state awards page on artandculture.tn.gov.in are updated when a year's list of six awardees is finalised, and the presentation itself, usually by the Chief Minister, is where the result becomes public.
4. Use the Policy Note as a running record. The Department of Art and Culture's annual Policy Note lists the cumulative count of Kalaichemmal awardees (36 traditional and 67 contemporary artists, 103 in total, as of the 2025-26 Policy Note) and names the most recent year's six recipients. A newly announced name will appear there.
5. For a documented answer, file an RTI application with the Department of Art and Culture asking whether your submitted profile was considered in a given year's Kalaichemmal selection and, if not, why. This is the only route that produces a written response tied to your specific case, since no helpline can look up an individual candidate's standing in the selection process.

There is no SMS alert, login, or reference number for Kalaichemmal specifically. The honest expectation for any artist who has put a profile forward is that silence in a given year does not mean rejection; it means the year's six awards went to other artists, and the profile remains on file for future years.