Shekhar Sen is a singer, a music composer, a lyricist, and an actor. Sen is famous for his monoact musical plays that he researched, written, composed, enacted, and directed: "

Tulsi ''Ocimum tenuiflorum'', commonly known as holy basil, ''tulsi'' or ''tulasi'', is an aromatic perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and widespread as a cultivated plant throughout the Southeast Asian ...

", " Kabeer", "

Vivekanand Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introd ...

", "Saahab" & "

Soordas Surdas (IAST: Sūr, Devanagari: सूर) was a 16th-century blind Hindu devotional poet and singer, who was known for his works written in praise of Krishna, the supreme lord. He was a Vaishnava devotee of Lord Krishna, and he was also a ...

Early life

Sen was born in 1961 and raised in a Bengali family in

Raipur Raipur ( ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Raipur is also the administrative headquarters of Raipur district and Raipur division, and the largest city of the state. It was a part of Madhya Pradesh before the state of Chh ...

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...

. His father, the late Dr. Arun Kumar Sen, who was the Vice-Chancellor at

Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya Indira Kala Sangit Vishwavidyalaya (IKSV), also Indira Kala Sangeet University, is a public university located in Khairagarh, Rajnandgaon district, Chhattisgarh, India. History In 1956, Maharaja Birendra Bahadur Singh and maharani Padmavati Dev ...

Khairagarh Khairagarh is a city in Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai district. Formerly, it was the part of Rajnandgaon district. History Khairagarh State was a feudatory state of the former Central Provinces of British India. Pandadah (8 kilometer from ...

, and mother late Dr. Aneeta Sen, were both renowned classical singers of

Gwalior Gharana The Gwalior Gharana (Gwalior school of classical music) is one of the oldest Khyal Gharana in Indian classical music. The rise of the Gwalior Gharana started with the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar (1542–1605). The favourite singers of t ...

and

Musicologists Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

. He learned music from his parents, moved to Mumbai in 1979 to become music composer, and began singing in 1984. He started doing research oriented musical programs, such as Dushywant Ne Kaha Tha 1984 (ghazals of Dushyant Kumar), Madhya Yugeen Kaavya 1985 (sang medieval poets like

Raskhan Syed Ibrahim Khan (1548-1628) was an Indian Sufi Muslim poet who became a devotee of the Hindu deity Krishna. He was either born in Pihani (Hardoi) or Amroha Amroha is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is located north-wes ...

, Raheem, Lalitkishori, Bhooshan, Bihari,

Kabir Kabir Das (1398–1518) was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint. His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, ...

Tulsidas Tulsidas (; born Rambola Dubey; also known as Goswami Tulsidas; c.1511pp. 23–34.–1623) was a Ramanandi Vaishnava Hindu saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit and Awadhi, but ...

, Sur Pakistan ka Hindi Kavya1986 (Hindi Geet, Dohe written in Pakistan), Meera Se Mahadevi Tak 1987 (Hindi songs by Poetesses) & many more innovative programmes. Shekhar Sen i

Career

Sen started his career in Mumbai in 1979, with the objective of becoming a music composer. He was contracted by

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

as a ghazal singer. He soon realized that his true talent lay in composing bhajans so he shifted to that, rendering more than 200 Bhajan Albums since 1983 as singer, a lyricist, and a composer. He sang and composed for many TV serials and films. He has performed more than 1200 concerts, singing all over the world. Since 1998, as a playwright, actor, singer, director and composer, Sen has created one man musical plays and performed more than 1000 shows of his Mono Act Musical Plays, "Tulsi", "Kabeer" "Vivekananda" "Sanmati", "Saahab" & "Soordas". His performances received great acclaim in India as well as abroad such as US, England,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, Singapore,

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, Hong Kong,

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital o ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

, and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. Sen's play, a mono-act "Soordas", premiered at NCPA Mumbai on 14 June 2013. Sen told Timeout Mumbai, "Initially, I was very apprehensive about whether to portray a blind person for two hours – a very tough task. But when I started writing

he play He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

I realised that people with sight can only see the world n a 180-degree view while those without sight are able to see the world n360 degrees". In 2015, he received the

Padma Shri Award Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred ...

, and was appointed to be the Chairperson for Sangit Natya Academy by Indian Government.

Awards and accolades

* Chair Person of

Sangeet Natak Academy Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. History It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and be ...

since 2015 *

in Art field by Indian Government, 2015 *

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

felicitated him with "Safdar Hashmi Puraskaar, 2001" for the contribution in the field of theatre * Performed " Kabeer" at

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

on 4 May 2005 * V.Shantaram Samman of Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy, 2008 * Performed "

" at

Rashtrapati Bhavan The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; originally Viceroy's House and later Government House) is the official residence of the President of India at the western end of Rajpath, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India. Rashtrapati Bh ...

on 27 April 2013 * Performed " ono Act on life of Soordas at

on 11 April 2015 * Performed in

World Hindi Conference The World Hindi Conference, in Hindi: Vishva Hindi Sammelan ( hi, विश्व हिंदी सम्मेलन), is a world conference on Hindi language. It consists of several Hindi scholars, writers and laureates from different parts ...

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...

on 6–9 June 2003 * Served as expert committee member of

Ministry of Human Resource Development (India) The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further di ...

for 2 years * Performed in

, South Africa on 22–24 September 2012 * As member of

Central Board of Film Certification The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...

for 4 years

Discs and albums

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Shekhar Indian male singers Living people 1961 births People from Raipur district Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts People from Maharashtra