Pune: Road In Kothrud Named After Eminent Musician Bhaskar Chandavarkar

Kothrud, 21 June 2021: A road in Kothrud leading to the house of eminent music composer and sitarist late Bhaskar Chandavarkar was named after him on Sunday.

BJP state president and MLA Chandrakant Patil, famous classical singer Anand Bhate, as well as several municipal councillors from the Kothrud assembly constituency, were present for the road naming ceremony.

Corporator Manjushri Khardekar took lead in this project while corporators Deepak Pote, Madhuri Sahastrabuddhe, Jayant Bhave, BJP Spokesperson Sandeep Khardekar graced the event. Ashay Foundation head Virendra Chitrao and Puneet Joshi among other dignitaries were also present at the occasion.

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MLA Patil said, “The name is given to this road not only because Bhaskar Chandavarkar lived here but also because he was active in taking care of the area. He planted several trees on the road here as well as built sculptures and regularly cleaned the road. Pune city has a rich cultural heritage and the need to preserve it is imminent. There were many great personalities in the city whose memories need to be preserved.”

Singer Anand Bhate, remembering the sitarist, mentioned that he received an award from him while he was in school. “Bhaskarji and Meenatai encouraged me to sing. I am happy that I was able to fulfil this wish of Meena teacher,” Bhate said.

Bhaskar Chandavarkar (16 March 1936 – 25 July 2009) was a music composer, sitar player and academic. He was a professor of music at Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) for 15 years. Was a theatre music composer who worked with well-known directors of Indian cinema in various languages including Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Oriya and was known for his blending of Indian classical and western music.

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He taught at the FTII as well as in various universities in the United States of America (USA). He composed music for over 40 films and is most known for his work in films such as Amol Palekar’s film Thoda Sa Rumani Ho Jaayen, Girish Karnad’s Ondanondu Kaladalli, Jabbar Patel’s Samna, Mrinal Sen’s Khandhar, Vijaya Mehta’s Rao Saheb, Chitra Palekar’s Maati Maay and K. G. George’s Swapnadanam.

He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Academy award by the President of India in 1988. He also received the President’s National Film Award for Music direction in the Marathi short film Chaitra directed by Kranti Kanade in 2002.