CM to award Banga Bibhushan to Asha Bhosle on May 21

Kolkata: Noted playback singer Asha Bhosle will be awarded Banga Bibhushan, at a function on May 21.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be handing over the award to the versatile singer, who has been into playback singing for the past six decades.

It may be mentioned that it was the Chief Minister who had introduced the Banga Bibhushan and Banga Bhushan awards, after coming to power in 2011. Through these awards, the state government honours the services of eminent people from different fields.

This year, the programme in which the awards will be given, will take place at Nazrul Mancha from 5 pm onwards. Besides the award giving ceremony, there will also be a cultural programme, in which many artistes will be performing.

According to sources in the state secretariat, author Samaresh Majumdar will also be awarded Banga Bibhusan, while footballer Subrata Bhattacharya will be getting Banga Bhushan. Some more eminent people will also be awarded with the highest civilian award of the state.

In the past six decades, Bhosle, who will be getting the highest civilian award in Bengal, did playback singing for thousands of films and also recorded many private albums. The singer, who is known for her versatility in singing, has also sung several Bengali

songs.

Chaddobeshi, Ekanta Apon and Jiban Saikate are some of the many Bengali movies in which Bhosle's songs have touched the heart of the Bengalis.

She married RD Burman and has sung some of his immortal Hindi songs. She has also sung songs composed by her father-in-law SD Burman.

Her songs, which were released ahead of Durga Puja, used to become superhits every year. Kine De Reshmi Churi is one of the songs on which dance is composed till today and performed in various programmes.

Many of her Bengali songs were also converted from Hindi and those include Chokhe Name Bristi, Gunjone Dole Je Bhramar and Gungun Gunje. She has also sung Bengali songs composed by Nachiketa Ghosh and Sudhin Dasgupta.

It may be mentioned that in 2017, the state government had given Banga Bibhushan award to YC Deveshwar, Nirendranath Chakraborty and Dr Arun Prasad Mukherjee. Earlier, Mahasweta Devi, Manna Dey, Amala Shankar, Sailen Manna, Supriya Devi, Suchitra Sen, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay and many others had been awarded the same.

In 2017, eminent personalities, including noted singer from Bangladesh Srimati Rezwana Chowdhury Bannya, Lakhsman Das Baul and Gonath Rava were awarded with Banga Bhushan.