Rai Chand Boral was an Indian composer, considered by music connoisseurs to be the Bhishma Pitamah, the father of Bollywood film music.
Girija Devi was an Indian classical singer of the Seniya and Banaras gharanas. She performed classical and light classical music and helped elevate the profile of thumri. She died on 24 October 2017.
Kavalam Narayana Panicker was an Indian dramatist, theatre director, and poet. He has written over 26 Malayalam plays, many adapted from classical Sanskrit drama and Shakespeare, notably Madhyamavyayogam (1979), Kalidasa's Vikramorvasiyam, Shakuntalam (1982), Karnabharam, Bhasa's Uru Bhangam (1988), Swapnavasavadattam, and Dootavakyam (1996). He is the founder – director of theatre troupe, Sopanam, which led to the foundation of Bhashabharati: Centre for Performing Arts, Training and Research, in Trivandrum.
Ratan Thiyam is an Indian playwright and theatre director, and the winner of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987, one of leading figures of the "theatre of roots" movement in Indian theatre, which started in the 1970s. Also known as Thiyam Nemai, Ratan Thiyam is known for writing and staging plays that use ancient Indian theatre traditions and forms in a contemporary context. A former painter, and proficient in direction, design, script and music, Thiyam is often considered one of leading contemporary theatre gurus.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship, officially known as Sangeet Natak Akademi Ratna Sadasya, is an Indian honour for the performing arts presented by Sangeet Natak Akademi. It is "the most prestigious and rare honour" conferred by the Akademi and is restricted to 40 individuals at any given time.
Manohar Singh was a distinguished Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films. He is best known for his performances in films such as Party (1984) and Daddy (1989). Starting his acting career from theatre, he went on to become a theatre director and later the chief of National School of Drama Repertory Company, 1976 to 1988, before switching to cinema. As a theatre actor his best known performances were in Tughlaq, directed by Ebrahim Alkazi; Himmat Mai and Begum Barve by Nissar and Amal Allana.
Heisnam Kanhailal was an Indian art theatre personality. For his work, he was awarded the Padma Shri civilian award in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan civilian award in 2016 by the Government of India. He was the founder-director of Kalakshetra Manipur, a theatre laboratory established in 1969 that explores a new vocabulary in the existing language of theatre.
Ajay Pohankar is an Indian classical vocalist belonging to Kirana Gharana school of Hindustani classical music.
N. Rajam is an Indian violinist who performs Hindustani classical music. She remained Professor of Music at Banaras Hindu University, eventually became Head of the department and the Dean of the Faculty of Performing Arts of the University.
Mand or Maand is a style of singing in Rajasthan, used in folk songs. It is similar to the thumri and the ghazal.
Bhanu Bharti is an eminent Indian theatre director and playwright, and the founder-director of Aaj Rangmandal theatre group. Most known for his theatre productions and choreographies with tribal and folk artists, including Pashu Gayatri by K.N. Panikkar, Kaal Katha and Amar Beej all based on rituals of the Bhil tribe of Mewar region of Rajasthan, apart from Chandrama Singh urf Chamku Das, Yamgatha and Aks-Tamasha, counting to over 70 plays in a career spanning nearly four decades.
Gangadhar Pradhan was an eminent Odissi (Orissi) exponent and teacher, who founded the Konark Natya Mandap in Konark Puri in 1986 and organised dance festivals in the temple city. Born on 10 July 1948 in Parikula in Puri in the Indian state of Odisha, he died in Bhubaneswar on 11 October 2010. He had several leading dancer-disciples, besides earning top national and international honours.
Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar was an exponent of Dagar vani Dhrupad of Indian classical music. He represented the 19th generation of Dagar Tradition. His cousins Nasir Moinuddin Dagar and Nasir Aminuddin Dagar were known as the Senior Dagar Brothers. Similarly, Nasir Zahiruddin and Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar were known as the Junior Dagar Brothers. His other cousins were Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, Fariduddin Dagar, and H. Sayeeduddin Dagar.
Sohini Sengupta is an Indian film and theatre actress. Daughter of actor Rudraprasad Sengupta and Swatilekha Sengupta, who are also active in theatre, Sohini is one of the leading actors of the Bengali theatre group Nandikar. As a member of the group she has worked with prominent theatre personalities such as Debshankar Halder, Sumanto Gangopadhyay and Parthapratim Deb, and was awarded Sangeet Natak Akademi’s 2007 ‘Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar’ for contributions to theatre. She also played a supporting role in Aparna Sen’s film Paromitar Ek Din (2000) for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2000 National Film Awards.
Kumar Roy (1926–2010) was a Bengali theatre actor, director and playwright. In 1983 he won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. He was associated with the group Bohurupee. In 1989 he directed the re-creation of the classic play Nabanna (1948). He was the President of the PashchimBanga Natya Akademi from 2006 till his death in 2010. Kumar Roy was also Professor of Drama at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata and Visiting Professor at Sangeet Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan.
Shanno Khurana is a noted Indian classical vocalist and composer, from the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana of Hindustani classical music. A disciple of the doyen of the gharana, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, she is known for performing rare bandish and raag, though her singing style includes genres like khayal, tarana, thumri, dadra, tappa, to chaiti and bhajan. Born and brought up in Jodhpur, she started singing on All India Radio in 1945 in Lahore, later shifted to Delhi, where she continued her singing on All India Radio, Delhi and in concerts and music festivals. She also pursued music education, finally earning her M. Phil. and PhD in music from the Kairagarh University, and has undertakes extensive research on folk music of Rajasthan.
Tapas Sen was a noted Indian stage lighting designer, who was an important figure in 20th-century Indian theatre. He started working with Bengali theatre movement in Kolkata in the late 1940s, along with noted directors, Utpal Dutt and Shambhu Mitra. Later he became a founding member of the Indian People's Theatre Association's (IPTA), Delhi chapter, and worked closely with Hindi theatre. Through his career stretching five decades he worked theatre directors, Ebrahim Alkazi, Vijay Tendulkar, and also dancers Sadhana Bose, Chandralekha, Birju Maharaj and Kelucharan Mahapatra. He was known not only for his creative stage lighting, but also had a significant impact on the work of leading theatre director of the time.
Professor Maheswar Neog was an Indian academic who specialised in the cultural history of the North East India especially Assam, besides being an Assamese-language scholar and poet. An editorial in the Assam Times called him "a versatile scholar and visionary thinker with encyclopedic range." He remained Jawaharlal Nehru Professor at Gauhati University and later Saint Sankaradeva Professor at Punjabi University.
Sushil Kumar Saxena is an Indian musicologist, academic, scholar and the author of several books on music, philosophy and aesthetics. He is a former member of the faculty of the University of Delhi and has served the University Court as a member. His works include Studies in the Metaphysics of Bradley, Hindustan Music and Aesthetics Today, Art and Philosophy: Seven Aestheticians, Croce, Dewey, Collingwood, Santayana, Ducasse Langer, Reid, and Swinging Syllables Aesthetics of Kathak Dance and his lectures have been included in a book, Indian Music: Eminent Thinkers on Core Issues ; Discourses by Premlata Sharma, S. K. Saxena and Kapila Vatsyayan. He is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship which he received in 2007. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 2008, for his contributions to Indian music.
