Rita Ganguly | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lucknow,Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Occupation | Classical musician |
| Known for | Hindustani music |
| Spouse | Keshav Kothari |
| Children | a son and a daughterMeghna Kothari |
| Parent(s) | K. L. Ganguly Meena |
| Awards | Padma Shri Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Priyadarshi Award Rajiv Gandhi Shiromani award Critics Circle of India Award Broadcasters Association Lifetime Achievement Award |
Rita Ganguly is an exponent in the Indian classical arts. An accomplished dancer, musician and vocalist, she was honoured with theSangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2000[1] and with thePadma Shri in 2003.[2] She is the mother of actressMeghna Kothari and the younger sister of the famous Ravindra Sangeet singerGita Ghatak.
Rita Ganguly was born inLucknow,Uttar Pradesh, into aBengali Brahmin family, and is the daughter of K. L. Ganguly, and Meena Ganguly. K. L. Ganguly was a freedom fighter and member of theCongress party. In 1938, he was selected byJawaharlal Nehru to become the first editor of theNational Herald, a newspaper founded by Nehru.[3][4]
Rita therefore grew up inLucknow, where the newspaper was based. She started learningRabindrasangeet at the age of 12 underGopeshwar Banerjee.[3] She later joinedVisva-Bharati University, along with her elder sister,Gita Ghatak with an emphasis on the arts whilst studying the Indian classical dance forms ofKathakali andManipuri.[4] She did further studies in Kathakali under renowned gurus,Kunchu Kurup and Chandu Pannikar[5] and trained in modern dance atMartha Graham School, New York.[3][4] She performed at various stages including theBolshoi Theatre, Russia and joined theNational School of Drama (NSD) as a faculty member of dance where she is known to have introduced a new course ofMovement and Mime.[3][4][6] She taught at NSD for thirty years[6] and during her tenure there, she is known to have contributed in productions and costume designing.[3] She is also credited with efforts in the recreation of the classical theatre and in the construction ofVikrishta Madhyam Auditorium.[3] Under the aegis of NSD, she visited many countries such as Australia, England, Sri Lanka and Israel where she presented performances and held workshops on Indian Classical Theatre.[3]
In the fifties, a chance opportunity to sing during a performance in Delhi changed her career and she started concentrating more on singing.[4] Encouraged byShambhu Maharaj, renownedKathak guru, she performed at many places in India along withSiddheshwari Devi, a known classical singer.[3][4] It was during one of these performances,Begum Akhtar, renownedHindustani singer, met Ganguly and took her as her disciple.[3][4] The bond between the singers lasted till Akhtar's death in 1974.[3]
Ganguly is aFord Foundation Fellow and has a doctoral degree for her thesis on the female singers of Indian subcontinent.[3] She produced a multimedia production,Ruh-e-ishq, incorporating the seven stages ofSufism, in 1997, to celebrate the fifty years ofIndian Independence.[3] She is known to have a liking fornazms, a genre ofUrdu poetry and has composed music for the poems of such Bengali poets asJibanananda,Shakti Chattopadhyay, Subhash Mukherjee, Shankho Ghosh,Sunil Gangopadhyay andJoy Goswami.[3] She was involved with theSoumitra Chatterjee production,Homapakhi for which she composed the theme song.[3] She has also acted inDarmiyaan, a feature film byKalpana Lajmi.[4]
Ganguly has performed at theFestival of India events held in UK and France. She is the author of a number of books related to art and music such asBismillah Khan and Benaras, the Seat of Shehnai[7] andAe Mohabbat... Reminiscing Begum Akhtar.[3][8] She is the founder ofKaladharmi,[9] a non-profit organization to promote young talents in arts and theBegum Akhtar Academy of Ghazal,[10] an academy for nurturing Ghazal tradition[3] which has instituted annual awards to recognize excellence in Ghazal music.[11] Her play on Begum Akhtar,Jamal-e-Begum Akhtar,[12] has been staged on many occasions[6] and she is planning a film on the life of Begum Akhtar[4] in association with the known ghazal singer,Anup Jalota, involving filmmaker,Ketan Mehta and music director,A. R. Rahman.[11]
Rita Ganguly received theSangeet Natak Akademi Award for music in 2000.[1] TheGovernment of India honoured her with the civilian award ofPadma Shri in 2003. She is also a recipient of Priyadarshi Award, Rajiv Gandhi Shiromani award, Critics Circle of India award and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Broadcasters Association of theMinistry of Information and Broadcasting.[3]
Rita Ganguly is the founder ofKaladharmi,[9] a non-profit organization for the promotion of performing arts andBegum Akhtar Academy of Ghazals (BAAG),[10] aghazal academy.[3]
Rita Ganguly was married to Keshav Kothari, a former secretary ofSangeet Natak Akademi and the couple has two children, son Arijeet a poet[13] and a daughter,Meghna Kothari who is an actress in Hindi films.[4]
She appeared in the filmParineeta (2005 film) and is credited for the song Dhinak-Dhinak-Dha[14] composed byShantanu Moitra penned bySwanand Kirkire.
She has also sung for the film Sarkar (2005) the song Deen Bandhu .[15]
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