Rita Ganguly

Rita Ganguly was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, into a Bengali Brahmin family, the daughter of K. L. Ganguly, a journalist, by his wife Meena Ganguly. K. L. Ganguly was a freedom fighter and member of the Congress party. In 1938, he was selected by Jawaharlal Nehru to become the first editor of the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Nehru.[3] [4]

Rita therefore grew up in Lucknow, where the newspaper was based. She started learning Rabindrasangeet at the age of 12 under Gopeshwar Banerjee.[3] She later joined Visva-Bharati University, along with her elder sister, Gita Ghatak with an emphasis on the arts whilst studying the Indian classical dance forms of Kathakali and Manipuri.[4] She did further studies in Kathakali under renowned gurus, Kunchu Kurup and Chandu Pannikar[5] and trained in modern dance at Martha Graham School, New York.[3][4] She performed at various stages including the Bolshoi Theatre, Russia and joined the National School of Drama (NSD) as a faculty member of dance where she is known to have introduced a new course of Movement 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 of Vikrishta 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 by Shambhu Maharaj, renowned Kathak guru, she performed at many places in India along with Siddheshwari Devi, a known classical singer.[3][4] It was during one of these performances, Begum Akhtar, renowned Hindustani 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 a Ford 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 of Sufism, in 1997, to celebrate the fifty years of Indian Independence.[3] She is known to have a liking for nazms, a genre of Urdu poetry and has composed music for the poems of such Bengali poets as Jibanananda, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Subhash Mukherjee, Shankho Ghosh, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Joy Goswami.[3] She was involved with the Soumitra Chatterjee production, Homapakhi for which she composed the theme song.[3] She has also acted in Darmiyaan, a feature film by Kalpana Lajmi.[4]

Ganguly has performed at the Festival of India events held in UK and France. She is the author of a number of books related to art and music such as Bismillah Khan and Benaras, the Seat of Shehnai[7] and Ae Mohabbat... Reminiscing Begum Akhtar.[3][8] She is the founder of Kaladharmi,[9] a non-profit organization to promote young talents in arts and the Begum 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 the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for music in 2000.[1] The Government of India honoured her with the civilian award of Padma 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 the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.[3]

Rita Ganguly is the founder of Kaladharmi,[9] a non-profit organization for the promotion of performing arts and Begum Akhtar Academy of Ghazals (BAAG),[10] a ghazal academy.[3]

Rita Ganguly is married to Keshav Kothari, a former secretary of Sangeet Natak Akademi and the couple has two children, a son, Arijit and a daughter, Meghna Kothari who is an actress in Hindi films.[4]

She appeared in some of films like Parineeta (2005 film) also.

• Rita Ganguly (2013). Ae Mohabbat... Reminiscing Begum Akhtar. Stellar Publishers. ASIN B00DHIZEXA.
• Rita Ganguly (1994). Bismillah Khan and Benaras, the Seat of Shehnai. Cosmo Publications. p. 136. ISBN 978-8170206798.