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AWARDS AND HONOURS

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 12/9/2019 12:29:01 PM

Vanraj Bhatia: Recipient of Padma Shri

Vanraj Bhatia is a music composer, who is best known for providing music for most of Shyam Benegal's films and for his private albums with Music Today. Although he gave good music to many art movies, he stayed away from mainstream commercial movies, barring exceptions like Amitabh Bachchan starrer Ajooba. One of his compositions is that of an Opera based on Mahabharat called Agni Varsha. Born in 1927 in Bombay, Vanraj Bhatia trained in Western classical music while studying at the Elphinstone College in Mumbai for M.A. English after graduating in 1949 he left for the Royal Academy of Music, London, to study music composition, which he passed with a Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1954. During the 1970s and 1980s he worked with many art film makers in India. In the 1990s he composed the music of Vijay Singh's international film Jaya Ganga (1996). He won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for Tamas in 1988, and was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1989. He was honoured in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri in the field of Art – Music. He also entered the Paris Conservatory where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and Howard Ferguson between 1954 and 1959. During his studies abroad he received various scholarships, including the Sir Michael Costa Scholarship (1951–54), a Rockefeller Fellowship (1954–58), and a French Government Scholarship (1957–58). In 1960, he started his career as Reader in Musicology in charge of Western Music at the Faculty of Music Delhi University, where he stayed until 1965. Meanwhile, in 1959, he created his first advertising jingle for Shakti Silk Sarees. From that point on he became one of the pioneering ad jingle makers in India and also one of the most successful, later moving to Mumbai and working for the advertising industry. In all he has created over 7000 scores for advertising jingles, corporate and business films. His first film as a music composer was Ankur (1974) and he soon became a regular composer for Shyam Benegal and other art film makers of the time. His most noted works in this period are Manthan (1976), Bhumika (1977), Junoon (1978), 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), Trikal (1985) and Mandi (1983) and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983). He has also created music for Indian theatre productions such as "Tughlak" and "Andha.