Features

Making waves

Few are aware that Tapan Bhattacharjee, music director, actor and singer is the versatile brother of the popular Hindi film playback singer Kumar Sanu. His father, Pashupati Bhattacharjee is a renowned music director and teacher, familiar with such eminent artistes as Hemant Mukherjee, Manna De, Sandhya Mukherjee and Nirmala Mishra among others.

Although not as high profile as his famous brother Sanu, Tapan Bhattacharjee is a well-known figure in the world of jatra and theatre. The play which first brought Tapan to the public eye was 1977’s Anthony Firingi. Following this, Bhattacharjee performed in a plethora of plays and jatras with no looking back.
In fact, two of his jatras — Dhuli and Saathihara — received the attention of Prabash Fadikar, the Cultural & Information Minister in 1986, when Tapan and his father Pashupati were pulled up for notice in the shape of awards for Best Acting and Music Direction. Tapan took to the jatra to shoulder the onus of his joint family consisting of two brothers and three sisters, he being the eldest.

From actor-singer in the world of jatra and theatre, Tapan entered Tollywood’s tinsel town in 1987. He has acted in almost a dozen Bengali feature films, two being Tarun Majumdar’s Sajani go Sajani and Abhimaney Anuraagey. In addition, Bhattacharjee also featured in the Hindi serial Haste Zakham, and also on Sony’s super-hit Black Cat, in which he not only acted but scored music for as well.

In the capacity of music director, Tapan’s first independent venture was an audio album based on Baba Lokhnath in 1994, commissioned by Hollywood’s Pan Music (which, incidentally, produced Gulzar’s Maachis). Tapan’s brother, Sanu then offered him to compose music for 1995’s Puja production for HMV, Amar Bhalobasa.

Among his current projects is his involvement as an actor and music director in the Bengali tele-serial, Bhorer Bhairabi based on the life of Jadu Bhatta, the Tansen of Bengal. There are other tele-serials as well, and among them are Jiban Bahasya (Life’s Mystery) directed by Hollywood’s Basu Chatterjee, Srikanta and Challenge (directed by Sujit Chatterjee).

Among his music projects are Jajabor Mon and Tomakey Sonabo Boley, both under the T-Series banner. Meanwhile, Chalo na Amai Niyeh will be the first Bengali audio album by Bhattacharjee for G Music.

Also See: PRIYA & LAXMIKANT BERDE Switching roles