Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was an Indian novelist, poet, essayist and journalist. He was the author of the 1882 Bengali language novel Anandamath, which is one of the landmarks of modern Bengali and Indian literature. He was the composer of Vande Mataram, written in highly Sanskritised Bengali, personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring activists during the Indian Independence Movement. Chattopadhayay wrote fourteen novels and many serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treatises in Bengali. He is known as Sahitya Samrat in Bengali.
Dominic James Miller is a British guitarist. With much of his career as a sideman and guitarist for singer Sting, he has also released several solo albums.
Hariharan Anantha Subramani is an Indian playback, bhajan and ghazal singer who predominantly sings in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu languages. He has also sung over 15,000 notable songs in 10+ languages including Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Sinhala, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Odia, Bengali, Sanskrit, Gujarati and English. He is an established ghazal singer and one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music.
Karsh Kale is an Indian-American musician born in England. Known primarily for his experimental tabla playing within electronic music contexts, Kale's career has seen him take on roles of an Indian classical tabla player, singer, songwriter, film and TV score composer and DJ. He is considered a pioneer of the Asian Underground genre, bringing elements of Indian music to Electronica and Dance. His career highlights include touring as the supergroup Tabla Beat Science, 6 solo studio records from 1999, the seminal 2005 album "Breathing Under Water" with Anoushka Shankar, scoring and production for the 2019 Bollywood smash hit "Gully Boy", curating 6 acclaimed songs for the Indian Coke Studio in 2012, amongst many others. Kale is also popular for his eclectic collaborations with Sting, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan, U2, Norah Jones, Yoko Ono, and Herbie Hancock to name a few.
Susmit Sen is an Indian guitarist formerly part of Indian Ocean, an Indian fusion rock band, which he founded with lead vocalist Asheem Chakravarty in 1990. Sen released his first solo album, Depths of the Ocean in 2011, in the following year, he also started touring with his separate band, The Susmit Sen Chronicles, and eventually left Indian Ocean in 2013 to pursue a solo career.
Rahul Ram is an Indian bass guitarist, social activist and music composer. He plays bass guitar for musical band Indian Ocean, which he joined in 1991. He is also one of the three members of 'Aisi Taisi Democracy,' along with Varun Grover and Sanjay Rajoura.
Indian rock is a music genre in India that may incorporate elements of Indian music with rock music, and is often topically India-centric. While India is more often known for its classical music, filmi, Bollywood music, Indi-pop, and Bhangra, the Indian rock scene has also produced numerous bands and artists.
Shri is an Indian-born British composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. Shri specializes in acoustic, electric, and electronic-based live performances and incorporates traditional Indian instruments into his music.
Deepak Devraj Komath, better known as Deepak Dev, is an Indian music composer, best known for his compositions in Malayalam cinema. He started his career in the film Industry through the movie Chronic Bachelor (2003) directed by Siddique. Deepak is also a former member of the Kochi based Indian rock band Motherjane.
Motherjane is an Indian rock band that initially started in Kochi and was formed in 1996. The band consists of Niranj Suresh (Vocals), Anubhav Langthasa, Clyde d'Rozario and John Thomas (Drums). They have released a total of 3 studio albums, and 4 singles. Since their formation, genres like progressive rock and Carnatic music have influenced their music.
Colonial Cousins is an Indian duo, formed by singer Hariharan and singer-composer Leslee Lewis, who also have successful solo careers. Their eponymous first album hit platinum in sales in India and consistently headed the Indian music charts in 1996. The duo have received numerous awards, notably the MTV Asia Viewers' Choice Award, 1996, and the US Billboard's Viewers' Award, 1996. On 19 November 1998, the Colonial Cousins released their second album, The Way We Do It. They released their third album Aatma on 1 January 2001. They have scored two Tamil films, Modhi Vilayadu (2009), Chikku Bukku (2010). Their fourth album Once More was released in 2012.
Prithibi is a Bengali rock band officially formed in Kolkata, India in the year 2005. But its original formation goes back to 2001 at Ashutosh College. Presently the band consists of Kaushik, Deep, Arunangshu (guitar) and Aniruddha, Deepayan, Debangshu (guitar). The band became more popular with audiences when they stood first runner up in a competition, Band-E-Mataram held in Kolkata by a music channel, Sangeet Bangla, record label Asha Audio and Sangbad Pratidin in 2005.
The Dewarists is a musical television series on MTV India. The series is part music documentary and part travelogue. The show casts musicians from various parts of the world, collaborating to create original music while travelling across India. The first season featured a total of ten episodes. It featured many musicians, including Imogen Heap, Vishal–Shekhar, Zeb and Haniya, Shantanu Moitra, Swanand Kirkire, Indian Ocean, Mohit Chauhan, Parikrama, Agnee, Shilpa Rao, Shri, Monica Dogra, Rajasthan Roots, Papon, Rabbi Shergill, Shubha Mudgal, Swarathma, MIDIval Punditz, Humble the Poet, Karsh Kale, Baiju Dharmajan, Njeralathu Harigovindan, Raghu Dixit and Rewben Mashangva.
SpringSpree, sometimes written as Spring Spree and popularly known as Spree, is the annual cultural festival of the National Institute of Technology, Warangal. Soon to be in its 29th edition this cultural fest has the distinction of being one among the largest cultural fests of South India. With a footfall of around 10,000 and participation of around 600 colleges and increasing this fest has come a long way from its humble inception in 1978. Spring Spree today has an impressive array of events to cater to every possible personality. It covers every possible genre in music, dance, literature, art and gaming. Also an important part of this fest today are the workshops on subjects ranging from ethical hacking to the basics of a guitar. Also this fest has stepped up with time to include the celebs of the day. Some of the prominent personalities who have visited the campus during this very fest are Suraj Jagan, Suchitra, Sobhita Dhulipala, KK, Shobha Naidu, Baiju Dharmajan, Naresh Iyer and Stephen Devassy. The themes of Spring Spree have ranged from Renaissance, Rubaroo India, Carnival, Fantasia and World Fest for the year 2015.
Angaraag Mahanta, known by his stagename Papon, is an Indian playback singer and composer from Assam. Papon has also sung in many languages apart from Assamese like Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Marathi. He is the lead vocalist and founder of the folk-fusion band Papon and The East India Company. He is the son of the noted Assamese singer Khagen Mahanta and Archana Mahanta.
Jim Ankan Deka is an Indian musician, documentary film maker, photographer and director of Bangalore based organisation and music school Eastern Fare Music Foundation. He is the first person from Assam to open a music institute and a production house in Bangalore, India. He won multiple awards for his song Aawaz - speak up against sexual violence based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape incident.
Rex Vijayan is an Indian composer, guitarist, singer, record producer and multi-instrumentalist from Kerala. He is best known for being co-founder and guitarist for the alternative Malayali rock band Avial. He started out his career as a composer in the Malayalam film industry through Kerala Cafe by giving the score to Anwar Rasheed's segment 'Bridge'.
Agam is a Bangalore-based contemporary Carnatic progressive rock band. The band was formed in the year 2003. The current lineup consists of Harish Sivaramakrishnan (vocals) Swamy Seetharaman, T Praveen Kumar, Aditya Kasyap, Sivakumar Nagarajan, Jagadish Natarajan and Yadhunandan (Drummer). Jagadish Natarajan replaced Suraj Satheesh as the rhythm guitarist in 2012 but the lineup of the band has otherwise remained same. Vignesh Lakshminarayanan was replaced by Aditya Kasyap on bass and backing vocals. Agam is often featured on the Malayalam music channel Kappa TV.
Dharmajan Bolgatty is an Indian actor, producer, comedian, politician and entrepreneur, who works in Malayalam films, television, and stage shows. He began his career as a comedian appearing in sketch comedies on stage, later forayed into such comedic television shows and into films in 2010s. Dharmajan entered active politics in 2021, ahead of the assembly elections in Kerala. He is a member of Indian National Congress and was the United Democratic Front candidate in Balusseri constituency.
Sanjeev T is an Indian music producer, composer, singer, guitarist, and performer. Sanjeev’s music is an amalgamation of indie, rock, reggae, fusion, and jazz sounds. Currently, he is an independent music producer and also the founder and chief mentor at Rainbow Bridge, a music school and production studio in Bangalore. He is most known for his work as a lead guitarist with A.R. Rahman and played for movies like Rockstar, Delhi-6, Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Blue, Endhiran and more. He also worked with Bollywood music directors Pritam and Anu Malik and other Indian music directors like Shaan Rahman, Ghibran and Leon James. He has also composed music for two Malayalam movies, Vilakkumaram (2017) and Manoharam (2019). Apart from his work in the movie industry, he has officially released three albums, Freewill (2012), Epic Shit (2013) and St. (2018) with the fourth album, Future, scheduled for release by 2021. Four singles from his next album, Future, have already been released.
