Sawan Dutta

Last updated

Sawan Dutta is an Indian music director, composer, songwriter, record producer, vocalist and vlogger based in Bengaluru, India. She is best known for her original songs on her video song blog, The Metronome. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Dutta was born in New Delhi, India. She had an early interest in music and learned to play the harmonium at the age of three. During her early teenage years, she taught herself to play the Hawaiian Guitar and auditioned successfully to be a regular paid performer at the All-India Radio company. [2] After high school, Dutta joined the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, India to train as an architect. During her college years at the School of Planning and Architecture, she was a member of the musical band The Archetypes. She also joined the pioneering fusion rock band Indian Ocean as a keyboardist and backup vocalist (and the only woman in the band ever) during her college years. [3]

Career

Television

Dutta has created music for TV shows, such as the soundtracks for the Indian adaptations of the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? called Kaun Banega Crorepati [4] in Hindi and Ningalkkum Aakaar Kodeeswaran in Malayalam. Some of her other popular work on TV includes themes for Mastermind India , Bhanwar, India's Child Genius, It Happens Only In India, The History of Whatever and the National Award-winning cartoon series Jungle Tales.

Film

Dutta has composed songs for Bollywood films including Chai Pani (2004) [5] and Mumbai Delhi Mumbai [6]

Other

Dutta has also worked on several other music albums, including her own solo debut album Lady Chatterjee [7] [8] with the music label Saregama [9] (2005). She was a music producer for other performing artists, including the Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan [10] and his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan, [11] the flute player Ajay Prasanna, and the vocalist Vidya Shah.

Dutta has created soundtracks for documentary films such as The Underground Inferno and Cutting Carbon Footprint for the National Geographic Channel and Autumn in the Himalayas for the Public Broadcasting Service Trust. [12]

She has also created advertisement jingles and soundtracks for brands like the Indian car manufacturer Maruti, KFC, UNICEF and others.

Awards

Dutta was awarded the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards for her soundtrack for the puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee's theatrical production, Transpositions [13] [14] in 2008.

The Metronome

Dutta is known for her videos on her YouTube channel and website - The Metronome [15] [16] [17] in which she writes, composes and sings original songs on a number of subjects. Her recipe song series in which she demonstrates various recipes from the Bengal region has attracted a large following across the globe. [18] Dutta has often collaborated with different advertising brands that sponsor her vlog posts. Chief among these are Mahindra Agri Ltd, [19] Fortune Foods Ltd, and the restaurant chain Oh! Calcutta. [20] Dutta writes, composes and sings almost all her vlog posts herself with help from her husband C. B. Arun Kumar who is a film-maker. The music for her songs covers various genres including pop, jazz, Western and Indian classical and electronica. Some of her most popular vlog posts include An Ode to Boroline, Macher Jhol, [21] [22] Kosha Mangsho etc. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lara Dutta</span> Indian actress (born 1978)

Lara Dutta Bhupathi is an Indian actress and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Universe 2000, and primarily works in Hindi films. Dutta is a recipient of a Filmfare Award and established herself as a prominent leading lady in the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mini Mathur</span> Indian television host, actor and model (born 1972)

Mini Mathur is an Indian television host, actor and model. She was the host of the Indian reality singing contest Indian Idol for 6 seasons. Earlier, she was a VJ on MTV India where she hosted many shows. She has a bachelor's degree in English literature and an MBA in marketing from IMT Ghaziabad and recently played the lead in the Amazon original series Mind the Malhotras for which she received 7 best actor awards for her role as Shefali Malhotra. She hosts the Discovery School Super League on Discovery India and is the producer presenter of her travel series Minime, the first season of which aired on TLC. She also hosted an interview show with politicians, industrialists and opinion makers called Dilli dil se. She also was a contestant in the second season of Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siddhartha Basu</span> Indian television personality

Siddhartha Basu is an Indian television producer-director and quiz show host, widely regarded as the "Father of Indian television quizzing".

<i>Kaun Banega Crorepati</i> Indian game show

Kaun Banega Crorepati is an Indian Hindi-language television game show. It is the official Hindi adaptation of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise. It began with actor Amitabh Bachchan as presenter. The actor Shah Rukh Khan replaced Bachchan for the third season, after which Bachchan returned as the presenter. The programme aired on Star Plus for its first three seasons from 2000 to 2007, and was commissioned by the programming team of Sameer Nair. In 2010, it started airing on Sony Entertainment Television and was produced by BIG Synergy from season 1 till season 10. Afterwards, the credited production companies co-producing are Studio NEXT since season 10 and Tree of Knowledge since season 11 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harshdeep Kaur</span> Indian singer

Harshdeep Kaur is an Indian playback singer known for her Bollywood Hindi, Punjabi, English and Sufi songs. She is popularly known as "Sufi Ki Sultana" because of her soulful Sufi renditions. After winning titles in two reality shows, Kaur established herself as a lead singer in Bollywood soundtracks. Kaur was sixteen years old when she released her first Bollywood song, "Sajna Mai Haari".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Falguni Pathak</span> Indian singer

Falguni Pathak is an Indian singer, performing artist and composer based in Mumbai. Her music is based on traditional musical forms from the Indian state of Gujarat. Since her professional debut in 1987, she has developed into an artist with a large fan base across India. Once asked how she decided to take up singing as a career, she replied that it happened by default.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saregama</span> Indian music record label company

Saregama India Ltd., formerly known as The Gramophone Company of India Ltd., is India's oldest music label company, owned by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group of companies. The company is listed on the NSE and the BSE with its head office located in Kolkata and other offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. Apart from music, Saregama also produces films under the brand name Yoodlee Films and multi-language television content. Saregama also retails a music-based hardware platform called Carvaan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sakshi Tanwar</span> Indian actress

Sakshi Tanwar is an Indian actress and presenter, who primarily works in Hindi films and television. Tanwar is considered among the highest-paid television actresses in India. Tanwar is widely recognised for her portrayal of Parvati Agarwal in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and Priya Sharma Kapoor in Bade Achhe Lagte Hain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupa Publications</span> Book publisher in India

Rupa Publications is an Indian publishing company based in New Delhi, with sales centres in Kolkata, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Kathmandu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gauhar Jaan</span> Indian singer and dancer

Gauhar Jaan was an Indian singer and dancer from Kolkata. She was one of the first performers to record music on 78 rpm records in India, which was later released by the Gramophone Company of India and resulted in her being known as "the Gramophone girl" and "the first recording superstar of India". Having recorded more than 600 songs in more than ten languages between 1902 and 1920, Jaan is credited with popularising Hindustani classical music such as thumri, dadra, kajri, and tarana during the period.

Hemant Chaturvedi is an Indian cinematographer in the Hindi film industry, he received great critical acclaim for his first feature, Company (2002). "His frames thrive on the sense of realism, wrote The Hindu, "and the colours capture the gore, dust and highways of the crime world effectively". Thereafter he worked with Vishal Bhardwaj in two successive films, and winning acclaim for Maqbool (2002). Recently he received good reviews of Kurbaan (2009), as per film critic Nikhat Kazmi, his work "serenades" both New Delhi and New York where the films was shot.

<i>Dharmputra</i> 1961 Indian film

Dharmputra is a 1961 Hindi film directed by Yash Chopra based on a novel of the same name by Acharya Chatursen. This is Yash's second directorial venture. It was the first Hindi film to depict the partition of India, and Hindu fundamentalism. Produced by his elder brother B.R. Chopra, who was himself uprooted from Lahore, during the partition of India and established B.R. Films in Mumbai in 1956. The film dealt with issues of religious bigotry, fanaticism and communalism amidst the backdrop of the partition. Two years earlier, Yash Chopra had made his debut with Dhool Ka Phool (1959), steeped in Nehruvian secularism, wherein a Muslim brings up an "illegitimate" Hindu child and featured the classic song "Tu Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega, Insaan Ki Aulaad Hai, Insaan Banega". The theme was reversed in this film as herein a Hindu family brings up an illegitimate Muslim child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papon (singer)</span> Musical artist

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meghna Pant</span> Indian author, journalist and speaker

Meghna Pant is an Indian author, journalist and speaker. She has won a variety of awards for her contribution to literature, gender issues and journalism. In 2012, she won the Muse India National Literary Awards Young Writer Award for her debut novel One-and-a-Half Wife. Her collection of short stories, Happy Birthday and Other Stories was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Award.

<i>Mumbai Delhi Mumbai</i> 2014 Indian film

Mumbai Delhi Mumbai is 2014 Hindi language Indian romance-comedy written and directed by Satish Rajwade for Viacom 18 Motion Pictures. The film, adapted from Rajwade's 2010 Marathi movie Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai, stars Shiv Panditt and Pia Bajpai, and released on 5 December.

Mayukh Hazarika is an Indian playback singer and music director from Assam. He is the frontman of Delhi based band Mayukh Hazarika and the Brahmaputra Balladeers. He is the son of legendary Assamese musician duo Jayanta Hazarika and Manisha Hazarika and nephew of Dr Bhupen Hazarika.

Rajesh Jais is an Indian film actor, known for first daily soap of India Shanti (1994), worldwide touring play since 2016 'Mughal-e-Azam', Big Banner Films like — Tu Jhoothi Mai Makkar (2023) Mili (2022) Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (2018), Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008), Rocket Singh (2009), Airlift (2016), Raazi (2018), Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Missing (2018), Life Partner (2009), Why Cheat India (2019), Indoo Ki Jawani (2020), Roohi (2021) and Most talked about webseries Scam 1992, Rana Naidu, Paatal Lok, Panchayat, Jehanabad, Tanaav, Rudra, Rudrakaal and more than 60 top brands of Ads etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priyamvada Singh</span>

Priyamvada Singh is a media professional and a heritage restorer based in India. After working in the television industry in Mumbai for a decade, she returned to her ancestral home in Rajasthan, and used the skills of the local community to restore an ancestral fort in her village Meja near Bhilwara. Her use of local skills for the restoration and social upliftment efforts towards the local community won her the Nari Shakti Puraskar from the Indian Government.

Sparsh Shah is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and inspirational speaker from New Jersey, US. He was born in 2003 in Iselin, New Jersey, to a family of Indian descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archana Garodia Gupta</span> Author and entrpreneur

Archana Garodia Gupta is an author, entrepreneur, business leader, and quizzer. She was the president of the FICCI Ladies Association in 2015.

References

  1. "Miss Metronome". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on November 9, 2016. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  2. "Sawan Dutta – #TellMeYourStory". tellmeyourstory.in. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  3. Sanyal, Amitava (2013-09-14). "Parting of the Ocean". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  4. "Amitabh Bachchan's Kaun Banega Crorepati raises the 'crore' bar". The Indian Express. 2013-09-06. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  5. "Welcome to Chai pani etc". www.chaipanietc.com. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  6. https://in.bookmyshow.com/movies/mumbai-delhi-mumbai/ET00025912
  7. "Meet Lady Chatterjee". The Hindu. 2006-05-13. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  8. "The Telegraph - Calcutta: Frontpage". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on September 10, 2006. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  9. "Listen to Sawan Dutta songs online, Sawan Dutta songs MP3 download". Saregama. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  10. Raghupati Raghav Rajaram Instrumental, 1965-08-14, retrieved 2018-01-23
  11. "Details - India Instruments". www.india-instruments.com. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  12. PSBT India (2015-01-02), AUTUMN IN THE HIMALAYAS , retrieved 2018-01-23
  13. "Transposition - Metawards". Metawards. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  14. "Transposition - Confluence - Festival of India in Australia". Confluence - Festival of India in Australia. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  15. "Music is my religion: Sawan Dutta". Hindustan Times. 2006-11-16. Retrieved 2018-01-23.[ dead link ]
  16. "'It's an exaggerated take on some universal Bengali traits'". The Indian Express. 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  17. "Google Translate". translate.google.com. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  18. "Forget Sardar jokes! Indian stereotypes are making jokes on themselves #LolOnUs". Hindustan Times. 2017-03-18. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  19. "Mahindra's NuPro stirs up culinary delights in association with the inimitable Sawan Dutta". www.mahindra.com. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  20. "20:20 at Oh! Calcutta". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 24, 2018. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  21. "This Ballad Of Macher Jhol Will Awaken Your Inner Chef". Huffington Post-India. 2016-07-25. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  22. "How about listening to a pretty woman sing the recipe of macher jhol as you make it?". India Today. 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  23. "Watch a Bengali singer poke fun at Macher Jhol, Boroline and monkey caps". Hindustan Times. 2016-07-29. Retrieved 2018-01-23.