MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 84 of 100

Correct — C, Rajkumar Hirani. The Madhya Pradesh government's national Kishore Kumar Samman for the year 2023 went to the film-maker Rajkumar Hirani — director of Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots, PK and Sanju — honoured in the screenplay/scriptwriting stream of the award. He received it at Khandwa, Kishore Kumar's home town, on 13 October 2024, the singer's 37th death anniversary. The award is conferred by the state's Department of Culture, carries a cash component of ₹5 lakh with a citation, and rotates among four fields of cinema — acting, direction, screenplay and lyrics.

• (a)Kailash Kher — A well-known playback singer and Padma Shri (2017), and a plausible guess because the award carries a singer's name — but the 2023 Kishore Kumar Samman was conferred on Rajkumar Hirani, and that year's honour fell in the screenplay stream, not a singing one.
• (b)Shankar Mahadevan — A singer-composer of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio, a Padma Shri and a Grammy winner with the band Shakti in 2024 — but not the recipient of this state honour for 2023.
• (d)Vishal Bhardwaj — A director and music composer known for Maqbool, Omkara and Haider — the closest rival profile to the actual winner, since he too works in writing and direction, but he was not the 2023 awardee.

Madhya Pradesh's Department of Culture confers a family of national awards, each named after a cultural figure connected with the state. The Kishore Kumar Samman is the cinema award in that family, named for Kishore Kumar — singer, actor, composer, producer and director — who was born at Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh on 4 August 1929 and died on 13 October 1987. The award is not restricted to singers: it rotates among acting, direction, screenplay and lyrics, and the ceremony is traditionally held at Khandwa around the anniversary of his death.

The option set is built on one assumption — that an award named after a legendary singer must go to a singer — and two of the four names (Kailash Kher, Shankar Mahadevan) exist only to reward that assumption. Knowing that the Samman rotates through cinema disciplines makes the two film-makers the real contest, and for 2023 the honour was Rajkumar Hirani's, given in the screenplay category. The safest way to hold this question is as a triad: Kishore Kumar Samman ↔ Khandwa ↔ Rajkumar Hirani (2023).

• Kishore Kumar was born at Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, on 4 August 1929 and died on 13 October 1987
• Kishore Kumar Samman — a national award of the Madhya Pradesh Department of Culture for Hindi cinema; ₹5 lakh with a citation; rotates among acting, direction, screenplay and lyrics
• Award for 2023: Rajkumar Hirani, in the screenplay stream, conferred at Khandwa on 13 October 2023 — Kishore Kumar's death anniversary, the date MP uses for this Samman
• Earlier recipients include Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra and Shatrughan Sinha
• Companion honours of the same state government include the Kalidas Samman, Tansen Samman, Lata Mangeshkar Samman, Iqbal Samman, Maithili Sharan Gupt Samman and the Rashtriya Devi Ahilya Samman

• Assuming an award named after a singer must be given to a singer — this one rotates through four cinema disciplines
• Assuming the award is given long after the year it is for — MP confers this Samman in the same calendar year, on 13 October, Kishore Kumar's death anniversary
• Confusing the state's Kishore Kumar Samman with any national award of the Government of India

MPPSC asks 'which award is given for X' or 'who received award Y in year Z' almost every cycle, drawing on the state's own honours list. Learn each Samman by its field and its host town; UPSC, by contrast, sticks to national-level honours.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Kishore Kumar Samman is instituted by the government of which state, and its ceremony is traditionally held in which town?

  • (a)Madhya Pradesh; Khandwa
  • (b)Maharashtra; Nagpur
  • (c)Madhya Pradesh; Gwalior
  • (d)Chhattisgarh; Raipur

  Answer(a) Madhya Pradesh; Khandwa — Kishore Kumar's birthplace.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Tansen Samman, another national award of the Madhya Pradesh government, is conferred in the field of:

  • (a)Hindustani classical music
  • (b)Urdu poetry
  • (c)Painting and sculpture
  • (d)Cinema

  Answer(a) Hindustani classical music — presented during the Tansen Samaroh held near Gwalior.