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Jairam
Starring	Navdeep, Santhoshini, Ayesha Jhulka
Release date(s)	2004
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Jairam is the dubbed version of the Telugu movie Jaii. Jairam (Navdeep), a college student, is starved of affection from his mother (Ayesha Jhulka), very busy business woman. Farah, his college mate, falls in love with him. When Jairam takes a beating at the hands of other students, Farah takes him to her father, a canteen owner, who trains him as a boxer. Meanwhile, Jairam's mother organizes a boxing match between Indian and Pakistani boxers as part of a business deal. When the Pakistani boxer emerges victorious and taunts Indians, Jairam challenges that he will defeat him in a boxing match..... finally he will win the match and his love.

Jairam Ramesh
Jairam Ramesh in Gurgaon in 2009
Constituency	Adilabad District, Andhra Pradesh
Minister of Rural Development
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 July 2011
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Vilasrao Deshmukh
Ministry of Environment and Forests
In office May 2009 – 12 July 2011
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Manmohan Singh
Succeeded by	Jayanthi Natarajan
Member of Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office June 2004
Personal details
Born	(1954-04-09) 9 April 1954 (age 58) Chikmagalur, Karnataka
Political party	Indian National Congress
Residence	New Delhi
Alma mater	IIT Bombay Carnegie Mellon University Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Profession	Economist
Religion	practicing Hindu, studies Buddhism
Website	Jairam Ramesh
As of 25 January, 2007 Source: [1]

Jairam Ramesh born April 9, 1954, is an Indian economist and an influential politician of the Congress Party in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ruling coalition of center-left political parties heading the Government of India. He is a Member of Parliament representing Andhra Pradesh state in the Rajya Sabha since June, 2004. In July, 2011, Mr. Ramesh was elevated to the Union Council of Ministers of India and appointed Minister of Rural Development and Minister (Additional Charge) of the new Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. He was previously the Indian Minister of State (Independent Charge) at the Ministry of Environment and Forests from May 2009 to July 2011.^{[1] [2][3][4][5][6]}

Personal[link]

Jairam was born on April 9, 1954 in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. His father is the late Shri C.K. Ramesh. His mother is Shrimati Sridevi Ramesh. Jairam is an Iyengar Brahmin.^[2][7] His mother tongue is Tamil.^[7] He considers himself a practising Hindu with Buddhism ingrained and calls himself a 'Hind-Budh'^[2] He married K. R. Jayashree, an Iyer Brahmin, on January 26, 1981.^[2] He and his wife currently reside at Lodi Gardens, Rajesh Pilot Marg, in New Delhi. Their permanent residence is at Khairatabad, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.^[4]

Ramesh was strongly influenced by Jawaharlal Nehru since he was very young. He was fascinated by Nehru's modern approach to life, his bringing change in a traditional society and his liberal, humanist, rational approach to life, religion, men and civic matters. He considers himself a product of the Nehruvian era in many ways. An additional influence was Mohandas Gandhi whom he originally saw as anti-modern, anti-science and anti-West. As he grew older he read Gandhi more and viewed him in the political and historical context in which he operated, he came to appreciate and acknowledge Gandhi much more. He has also studied Rabindranath Tagore deeply.^[8]

Education[link]

Ramesh attended St. Xavier's School, Ranchi in 1961-1963 in classes 3 to 5. At age 16, under pressure from his father, Ramesh entered the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.^[8]

When Ramesh was 17, he read Paul Samuelson (an American economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1970) and found him very interesting. His presentation, the substance of issues such as population and growth got him thinking of economics and the larger issues of life, more so than worrying about engineering drawings and mathematical formulae. Also when he was 17, in 1971, he read Asian Drama, one of the early books of Gunnar Myrdal (a Swedish economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1974) and wrote to him at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Myrdal sent a very nice reply and said to stay in touch with him. Asian Drama was very influential to Ramesh's understanding of development planning in India.^[8]

Ramesh graduated from IIT-Bombay in 1975 with a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering. In 2001, IIT-B presented him with their Distinguished Alumnus Award.^[9]

Between 1975-77 he studied at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and received a Master of Science in Public Policy and Public Management. In 1977-78, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he studied technology policy, economics, engineering, and management, as part of the newly-established inter-disciplinary technology policy programme.^[4]

He is a founding member of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Asia Society. Ramesh has been a Visiting Fellow and Affiliated Researcher of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, since 2002.^[4]

Career[link]

In 1978, Jairam Ramesh joined the World Bank for a short assignment. He returned to India in December 1979 and worked as assistant to economist Lovraj Kumar at the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices. From 1983 to 1985 he was Officer on Special Duty in the Advisory Board of Energy. He then worked in the Planning Commission (advisor to Abid Hussain), Ministry of Industry and other economic departments of the Central Government, including: analyzing energy policy during 1983-85, reorganizing the CSIR in 1986 and implementing technology missions during 1987-89.^[10]

In 1990, he worked as an "Officer on Special Duty" during the National Front administration of the V.P. Singh government. He reorganized India's international trade agencies in 1990 and was advisor to the Prime Minister in 1991. In 1991 he worked in Manmohan Singh’s finance ministry in the Narasimha Rao administration.^[4]

Ramesh participated in India's economic reforms in 1991 and 1997. He was advisor to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in 1992-94, served on special mission to Jammu and Kashmir during 1993-95 and was advisor to Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram between 1996-98. The central government invited him to join the official delegation to the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999.^[11]

From 2000-2002, Ramesh served as Deputy Chairman, State Planning Board, Government of Karnataka and on the Economic Advisory Council of Andhra Pradesh. He also served on the eminent persons group of the Union Ministry of Power and other key government committees.^[4]

Ramesh also served as Secretary in the All India Congress Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Karnataka Planning Board (2000–2002), member of the Rajasthan Development Council (1999–2003), and Economic Advisor to the government of the state of Chhattisgarh (2001–03).^[11] He was a member of the Congress Party's electoral strategy team for the 2004Lok Sabha cycle.^[4]

In June, 2004, he was elected to represent Adilabad District, Andhra Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha. Following the formation of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2004, he joined the National Advisory Council, where he helped put together UPA's National Common Minimum Program. From Aug. 2004 - Jan. 2006 he was a member of three committees of Parliament: the Public Accounts Committee, the Standing Committee on Finance and the Committee on Government Assurances and was a member of the Court of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.^[4]

Jairam Ramesh With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during a multilateral meeting of U.S. President Barack Obama with Singh and the other leaders of the BASIC Bloc: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Brazilian President Lula da Silva and South African President Jacob Zuma during the United Nations Climate Change Conference, 18 Dec. 2009

In February, 2009, with the 15th Lok Sabha elections approaching, he led the party's Poll Strategy Panel. At that time he resigned his posts as Minister of State for Power and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.

Following his 2009 re-election to the Indian Parliament, on 28 May 2009 Ramesh was given independent charge of Environment and Forests as Minister of State in the Congress-led administration. He was chief negotiator for India at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 to 18 December 2009.^[12]

Mr. Ramesh was part of the 19-member 'Foundation Day Committee' of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), under the chairmanship of party president Sonia Gandhi, for planning the 2010 year-long celebrations of the 125th anniversary of the Congress Party.^[13]

On July 12, 2011, Mr. Ramesh was promoted to Cabinet Minister and reassigned to charge of the Ministry for Rural Development and on July 13, 2011 was named Minister (Additional Charge) of the new Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.^[4][14]

Journalism[link]

Mr. Ramesh has been a columnist for the Business Standard, Business Today, The Telegraph, Times of India and India Today, sometimes under the pen-name "Kautilya".

He has also anchored a number of popular television programmes on business and the economy including Business Breakfast and Crossfire. Ramesh is the author of the books:

• Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India (2005), Foreword by Strobe Talbot.^[15]
• Mobilising Technology for World Development (Co-editor, 1979)^[16]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jairam Ramesh

• An interview with Jairam Ramesh June 27, 2009
• Rajya Sabha biodata
• National Advisory Council Profile
• Profile on Rediff.com
• Resources on Ministry and Environment and Forests (MoEF)

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (February 2012)

Vani Jayaram
Vani Jairam in 2009
Background information
Born	Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India (1945-11-30) 30 November 1945 (age 66)
Genres	playback singing
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1971-current
Website	Official website

Vani Jayaram (born November 30, 1945 in Tamil Nadu) is a prominent Indian female playback singer. She has thrice won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer^[1]. She is also acclaimed for her in-depth knowledge of both forms of Indian classical music : Carnatic and Hindustani.

She has recorded more than 8,000 film songs in 14 different languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Hindi.^[1]

Personal life and background[link]

Vani Jayaram was born in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, in a family of musicians. Her mother is the disciple of Ranga Ramunaja Iyengar, a great veena exponent. Kadaloor Sreenivasa Iyengar, who taught Vani’s sister music, was fascinated by her observation and grasping power. He taught her a few Dikshitar kritis when she was hardly five.^[2] The fifth daughter in a family of six daughters and three sons, Vani always secretly yearned for a career in film playback singing. Considered to be a child prodigy, Vani Jayaram claims to have recognized the different ragas of Indian classical music before the age of five. Her voice was first heard on All India Radio, Madras, at the age of eight.

Vani Jayaram studied Carnatic music under the tutelage of Kadalur Srinivasa Iyengar, T. R. Balasubramanian and R. S. Mani. Her Hindustani classical music guru was Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan.

After her marriage to Jayaram she settled in Mumbai, where she realized her dream.

Career[link]

In 1971, she realized her childhood ambition of becoming a playback singer when Hindi film music director Vasant Desai chose her voice for the Hindi feature film Guddi. She recorded three songs for Guddi, and "Bol Re Papi Hara," a song based on the Hindustani raga Miyan Malhar, instantly made her an household name in India. For that song she was awarded the Tansen Samman (for best classical-based song in a Hindi film), the Lions International Best Promising Singer award, the All India Cinegoers Association award, and the All India Film-goers Association award for the Best Playback Singer in 1971. She went on to sing a few songs each for music directors of Hindi cinema, including Chitragupt, Naushad (a classical song in Pakeezah and a duet with Asha Bhosle in Aaina), Madan Mohan (a duet with Kishore Kumar in the film Ek Mutthi Aasmaan), O.P. Nayyar (several songs from the film Khoon Ka Badla Khoon including duets with Mohammed Rafi and also with Uttara Kelkar and Pushpa Pagdhare), R. D. Burman (a duet with Mukesh in Chhalia), Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, and Jaidev (a duet with Manna Dey in Parinay and a solo in Solwa Saawan). Her songs in Meera (1979), composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar, won her the Filmfare Award.^[3]

Around 1974, she shifted her base to Chennai and soon became a sought-after singer in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. She worked with almost all the leading music directors of south namely M. S. Viswanathan, M. B. Sreenivasan, K. V. Mahadevan, M. K. Arjunan, Jerry Amaldev, Salil Chowdhary and Ilayaraaja. With the Academy award winner, A. R. Rahman, she recorded a duet with S. P. Balasubramanyam in the song "Sugam sugam athu" for the film Vandicholai Chinnarasu in 1994.

Besides Hindi and Tamil, Vani Jayaram has recordings in other languages of India. These include some songs in Gujarati, Marathi, Marwari, Haryanvi, Bengali and Tulu, and a huge repertoire in Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Oriya. For her work in some of these languages, she has been awarded many prestigious awards, among them are Best Female Playback Singer for states of Gujarat (1975), Tamil Nadu (1980) and Orissa (1984).

One of her most famous Marathi songs, "Runanubandhachya," is a duet with the classical Hindustani singer Kumar Gandharva. This song was composed by Vani's mentor Vasant Desai for a Marathi drama called Dev Deenaghari Dhaavlaa. The lyrics were written by Bal Kolhatkar.

Awards[link]

Vani Jayaram was chosen for the Indian President's National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer of 1975, for her work in M. S. Viswanathan's Apoorva Raagangal. Shankarabharanam (Telugu), the film scored by K. V. Mahadevan, gave Vani Jayaram her second National Award as Best Playback Singer of 1980. Once again, she was awarded her third National Award for Best Playback Singer of 1991 for K. V. Mahadevan's Swathi Kiranam.

Her songs in the Pandit Ravi Shankar scored film Meera brought her the Film World (1979) Cine Herald (1979) and Filmfare Award (1980) for Best Playback Singer for "Mere To Giridhar Gopal".

She was awarded Tanzen Award in 1972, which she won for "Bole Re Pappihara" (from the film Guddi), one of the most popular songs in her career.^[1]

She is also the youngest artist to be awarded the Sangeet Peet Samman.^{[citation needed]}

Other titles[link]

• 2004: Kamukara Award ^[4]
• 2007: South Indian Meera ^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Vani Jayaram at the Internet Movie Database
• All 583 Malayalam songs of Vani Jairam
• Vani Jairam at MSI

[ml:വാണി ജയറാം]

Hema Malini
Born	Hema Malini R. Chakravarthy (1948-10-16) 16 October 1948 (age 63)[1] Ammankudi, Tiruchirappalli district, Tamil Nadu, India[1]
Occupation	actress, director, producer, politician
Years active	1965–present
Spouse	Dharmendra (1980–present)
Children	Esha Deol Ahana Deol

Hema Malini (Tamil: ஹேமா மாலினி, Hēmā Māliṉi ^?; born 16 October 1948) is an Indian actress, director and producer, as well as a Bharatanatyam dancer-choreographer. Making her acting debut in Sapno Ka Saudagar (1968), she went on to appear in numerous Bollywood films, most notably those with actor and future-husband Dharmendra.^[2] She was initially promoted as "Dream Girl", and in 1977 starred in a film of the same name.^[3] During this period, she established herself as one of Hindi cinema's leading actresses, noted for both her comic and dramatic roles, her beauty, and her accomplished classical dancing.^[4][5][6]

Malini is one of the most successful female film stars in the history of Indian cinema.^[5][7][8] Appearing in over 150 films in a career span of 40 years, she has starred in a large number of successful films, and her performances in both commercial and arthouse cinema, were often recognised.^[5] During her career, she has been nominated 11 times for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, of which she won once in 1972. In 2000, she was presented with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. In the same year, she was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour, by the Government of India.^[9] She also served as the Chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation. She was awarded the prestegious "SaMaPa Vitasta Award 2006" in Delhi by SaMaPa - "Sopori Academy of Music And Performing Arts" by Music Legend Pandit Bhajan Sopori for her lifetime contribution and service to Indian culture and Dance.

Of late Malini spends most of her time on charitable and social ventures, while making occasional appearances in films. She is a member of India's Bharatiya Janata Party and was nominated member by the party in Rajya Sabha, the upper House of parliament during 2003–2009.^[10]

Early life and family[link]

Hema Malini Chakravarty was born into a Tamil Iyengar family in Ammankudi, Tiruchirappalli to V.S. Ramanujam Chakravarthy^[11] and Jaya Chakravarthy on 16 October 1948.^[1] Her mother was a film producer. Malini was the youngest of the three children and has two brothers.^[12] She was not interested in academic studies but enjoyed history, her favourite subject in school.^[12] She was educated at Andhra Mahila Sabha in Chennai.^[11]

Some of Bollywood's most popular Bollywood actors like Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra have proposed to Hema Malini.^[13][14] In her authorized biography, Hema Malini mentions she almost accepted Jeetendra's proposal, but later backed out.^[13] Unable to tolerate the rejection, Sanjeev Kumar was reportedly driven to alcoholism and remained unmarried till his death in 1985.^[13]

Hema fell in love with her co-star Dharmendra during the filming of Sholay.^[15] She eventually married him in 1980. Before they married, they both converted to Islam,^[16] since Dharmendra was already married to Prakash Kaur^[17][18][19] who refused to divorce him. Apart from Sholay, the Dharmendra-Hema pair appeared together in films like Seeta Aur Geeta, Dreamgirl, Charas and The Burning Train. After her marriage she became the step-mother of Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol, both popular actors in Bollywood. She has two daughters with Dharmendra, Esha Deol (born 1982) and Ahana Deol (born 1984). Her elder daughter Esha is a well-known actress in Bollywood while her younger daughter Ahana is an aspiring director^[20] who worked as an assistant director to Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his film Guzarish (2010) which starred Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai.^[21][22]

Hema Malini's niece is actress Madhoo who had starred in films Phool Aur Kaante (1991), Roja (1992)^[23] and Annayya (1993)

Film career[link]

Debut: 1960s[link]

Hema was considered for a Tamil film when she was 15 but rejected by director C. V. Sridhar saying that she was too thin.^[24] In 1965, she got an opportunity to act in a short episode as dancer in Pandava Vanavasam, a Telugu film. Later Ananthaswamy, a film poducer offered her a role opposite Raj Kapoor in his film Sapno Ka Saudagar (1968).^[24] She was promoted as the dream girl of Bollywood right from that film itself.^[24]

Breakthrough: 1970s[link]

In Johnny Mera Naam (1970), she was cast in a more pivotal role and the film became a blockbuster. She took challenging roles which most of the heroines of the 1960s refused to do. She played the role of a young widow in Andaaz (1971) and in Lal Patthar (1971) she played a character with negative shades.^[24] The following year, Hema double-roled with Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar in Seeta Aur Geeta.^[25] Even after many years the film remains one of the best in her career.^[25] The film was a blockbuster and earned her first Filmfare Best Actress Award.^[26] Within four years of making her debut, she established herself as one of the leading actresses in Bollywood.^[4]

During the mid 70s, her fans started calling her "Dream Girl", an allusion to the movie of the same name where she starred opposite Dharmendra.^[24]

A majority of her films released during this period were highly successful; Sanyasi, Dharmatma and Pratigya. Sholay, released in 1975, became a box-office phenomenon, where she played the role of Basanti, an unforgettable role of a talkative girl.^[24]

Malini starred in many movies throughout the 1970s and is perhaps best remembered for her glamour, style, and accomplished classical dancing.^[13][27] The Dharmendra-Hema pair had back to back hits from the early 70's like Sharafat, Tum Haseen Main Jawan, Naya Zamana, Raja Jani, Seeta Aur Geeta starring together in 28 movies in all, eventually marrying him in 1980.^[24] The pair continued with box office hit movies like Patthar Aur Payal, Dost, Charas, Jugnu, Azaad, Dillagi and Dil Kaa Heera. She also achieved some strong dramatic or comic moments in films like Trishul, Joshila and Khushboo. In the late 1970s she acted in female-centric movies like Kinara (1977) and Meera (1979), directed by Gulzar.

Post marriage: 1980–1999[link]

After her marriage she continued to work in films like Kranti, Naseeb, Satte Pe Satta and Vijay Anand's Rajput. The couple Dharmendra Hema Malini were paired together even after marriage, in the eighties in Alibaba Aur 40 Chor, Baghavat, Samraat and Razia Sultan.In 1983 she starred in Andha Kanoon which marked the debut of Tamil actor Rajinikanth in Bollywood. In the film she played the sister of Rajinikanth, seeking revenge for the death of her parents. The following year she acted in K. Balachander's Ek Nai Paheli, a remake of his Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal. She portrayed the role of a classical singer in the film.

She was a part of the hit multi-starrers Baghavat and Raaj Tilak both opposite Dharmendra, and continued to gain success in films focusing on her character like Aandhi Toofan, Durgaa and Ramkali in 1985, Sitapur Ki Geeta in 1987 saw her doing action oriented roles while Ek Chaddar Maili Si (1986), Rihaee and Jamai Raja (1990), saw her playing more matured roles.^[24]

Hema also directed a film, Dil Aashna Hai which was a commercial failure and her career tapered off as she chose to concentrate more on her dance ballets and Television serials.^[24]

Comeback: 2000s[link]

After taking a break from films for a number of years in the 1990s and early 2000s, Hema made a comeback with Baghban (2003).^[24] The film had Amitabh Bachchan playing her husband and also earned her a Filmfare Best Actress Award nomination. She also played a cameo in the 2004 film Veer-Zaara. In both films, she played a self-possessed, elderly married woman. In 2011, She directed her second feature film that featured her daughter Esha Deol in the lead role alongside her husband Dharmendra in Tell Me O Khuda which released on Diwali of 2011.^[28][29]

Political career[link]

Hema Malini and her husband have been involved in politics, as members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India, with the support of the Bhratiya Janata Party.^[30][31] She campaigned for the BJP candidate, Vinod Khanna, former Bollywood actor in the 1999 Lok Sabha Elections in Gurdaspur in Punjab.^[30] In 2004, Hema Malini joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.^[30]

In February 2004, she joined the party (BJP) officially.^[30] With her film career less hectic, she has been an active member of the party, attending party meetings and rallies and campaigning for the party through various elections. In March 2010, she was made general secretary of the BJP. In February 2011, it was reported that Hema Malini has been recommended by H.N.Ananth Kumar, party general secretary.^[31]

Other work[link]

Malini performing at a concert

Hema Malini is a trained Bharatanatyam artist, a classical dance of India. Her daughters are well trained in the same dance form; the three have performed together at charity dance concerts.^[32][33] Malini is also trained in Odissi by Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra. Her refulgent smile eased her portrayal of a wide range of characters ranging from the fiery Narasimha to a graceful Rama on Tulasidas's Ramcharitmanas.^[34] In 2007, she performed in Mysore on the eve of Dussera, where she played the roles of Sati, Parvati and Durga.^[35] She had performed at the Khajuraho Dance Festival with her daughters.^[36]

In 2003, she played the role very well of Goddess Durga in television serial Jai Mata Ki, directed by Puneet Issar and aired on Star Plus.^[37] She directed and starred in the television serial Noopur, in which she played the role of a Bharatanatyam dancer.^[24] She owned the editorship of New Woman, a Hindi woman's magazine.^[38][39] In 2000 she was appointed as the first-ever woman chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation for three years.^[11][40] She owns a dance school, Natya Vihar Kalakendra.^[41]

In 2007, she was signed by Kent, a mineral water purifier system, as its brand ambassador.^[42] She is one of the three brand ambassadors of Pothys, a textile showroom in Chennai (the others being Sudha Ragunathan and Trisha Krishnan).^[43]

The first biography of Malini, Diva Unveiled-Hema Malini, was written by Ram Kamal Mukherjee and first published in 2005.^[44]

Latest filmography[link]

See also[link]

• List of awards and nominations received by Hema Malini
• List of Indian film actresses

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Somaaya, Bhawana (2007). Hema Malini: the authorized biography. New Delhi: Lotus Collection. ISBN 81-7436-467-6. 
• Raheja, Dinesh. "Hema Malini: Bollywood's Dreamgirl". Rediff. http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2002/oct/25dinesh.htm. Retrieved 15 June 2011. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hema Malini

• Hema Malini at the Internet Movie Database

Ravi Shankar
Shankar performs in Delhi in March 2009
Background information
Birth name	Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury
Born	(1920-04-07) 7 April 1920 (age 92) Varanasi, United Provinces, Indian Empire
Genres	Hindustani classical music
Occupations	composer, musician
Instruments	sitar
Years active	1939–present
Associated acts	Uday Shankar, Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Lakshmi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, Chatur Lal, Alla Rakha, George Harrison, Anoushka Shankar, Beatles
Website	RaviShankar.org

Ravi Shankar (Bengali: রবি শংকর; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7 April 1920), often referred to with the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the most known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.^[1]

Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.

In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards. He continues to perform in the 2000s, often with his daughter Anoushka.

Early life[link]

Shankar was born 7 April 1920 in Varanasi to a Bengali Brahmin family as the youngest of seven brothers.^[2][3][4] Shankar's Bengali birth name was Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury.^[2] His father, Shyam Shankar, an administrator for the Maharaja of Jhalawar, used the Sanskrit spelling of the family name and removed its last part.^[2][5] Shyam was married to Shankar's mother Hemangini Devi, but later worked as a lawyer in London.^[2] There he married a second time while Devi raised Shankar in Varanasi, and did not meet his son until he was eight years old.^[2] Shankar shortened the Sanskrit version of his first name, Ravindra, to Ravi, for "sun".^[2]

At the age of ten, after spending his first decade in Varanasi, Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his brother, choreographer Uday Shankar.^[6][7] By the age of 13 he had become a member of the group, accompanied its members on tour and learned to dance and play various Indian instruments.^[3][4] Uday's dance group toured Europe and America in the early to mid-1930s and Shankar learned French, discovered Western classical music, jazz, and cinema, and became acquainted with Western customs.^[8] Shankar heard the lead musician for the Maihar court, Allauddin Khan, in December 1934 at a music conference in Kolkata and Uday convinced the Maharaja of Maihar in 1935 to allow Khan to become his group's soloist for a tour of Europe.^[8] Shankar was sporadically trained by Khan on tour, and Khan offered Shankar training to become a serious musician under the condition that he abandon touring and come to Maihar.^[8]

Career[link]

Training and work in India[link]

Shankar's parents had died by the time he returned from the European tour, and touring the West had become difficult due to political conflicts that would lead to World War II.^[9] Shankar gave up his dancing career in 1938 to go to Maihar and study Indian classical music as Khan's pupil, living with his family in the traditional gurukul system.^[6] Khan was a rigorous teacher and Shankar had training on sitar and surbahar, learned ragas and the musical styles dhrupad, dhamar, and khyal, and was taught the techniques of the instruments rudra veena, rubab, and sursingar.^[6][10] He often studied with Khan's children Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi.^[9] Shankar began to perform publicly on sitar in December 1939 and his debut performance was a jugalbandi (duet) with Ali Akbar Khan, who played the string instrument sarod.^[11]

Shankar completed his training in 1944.^[3] Following his training, he moved to Mumbai and joined the Indian People's Theatre Association, for whom he composed music for ballets in 1945 and 1946.^[3][12] Shankar recomposed the music for the popular song "Sare Jahan Se Achcha" at the age of 25.^[13][14] He began to record music for HMV India and worked as a music director for All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi, from February 1949 to January 1956.^[3] Shankar founded the Indian National Orchestra at AIR and composed for it; his compositions experimented with a combination of Western instruments and classical Indian instrumentation.^[15] Beginning in the mid-1950s he composed the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, which became internationally acclaimed.^[4][16]

International career 1956–1969[link]

Tabla player Alla Rakha, who was a frequent accompanist of Shankar, in 1988

V. K. Narayana Menon, director of AIR Delhi, introduced the Western violinist Yehudi Menuhin to Shankar during Menuhin's first visit to India in 1952.^[17] Shankar had performed as part of a cultural delegation in the Soviet Union in 1954 and Menuhin invited Shankar in 1955 to perform in New York City for a demonstration of Indian classical music, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.^[18][19] Shankar declined to attend due to problems in his marriage, but recommended Ali Akbar Khan to play instead.^[19] Khan reluctantly accepted and performed with tabla (percussion) player Chatur Lal in the Museum of Modern Art, and he later became the first Indian classical musician to perform on American television and record a full raga performance, for Angel Records.^[20]

Shankar heard about the positive response Khan received and resigned from AIR in 1956 to tour the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.^[21] He played for smaller audiences and educated them about Indian music, incorporating ragas from the South Indian Carnatic music in his performances, and recorded his first LP album Three Ragas in London, released in 1956.^[21] In 1958, Shankar participated in the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the United Nations and UNESCO music festival in Paris.^[12] From 1961, he toured Europe, the United States, and Australia, and became the first Indian to compose music for non-Indian films.^[12] Chatur Lal accompanied Shankar on tabla until 1962, when Alla Rakha assumed the role.^[21] Shankar founded the Kinnara School of Music in Mumbai in 1962.^[22]

Shankar befriended Richard Bock, founder of World Pacific Records, on his first American tour and recorded most of his albums in the 1950s and 1960s for Bock's label.^[21] The Byrds recorded at the same studio and heard Shankar's music, which led them to incorporate some of its elements in theirs, introducing the genre to their friend George Harrison of The Beatles.^[23] Harrison became interested in Indian classical music, bought a sitar and used it to record the song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".^[24] This led to Indian music being used by other musicians and created the raga rock trend.^[24]

Harrison met Shankar in London in 1966 and visited India for six weeks to study sitar under Shankar in Srinagar.^[14][25][26] During the visit, a documentary film about Shankar named Raga was shot by Howard Worth, and released in 1971.^[27] Shankar's association with Harrison greatly increased Shankar's popularity and Ken Hunt of Allmusic would state that Shankar had become "the most famous Indian musician on the planet" by 1966.^[3][25] In 1967, he performed at the Monterey Pop Festival and won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for West Meets East, a collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin.^[25][28] The same year, the Beatles won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which included "Within You Without You" by Harrison, a song that was influenced by Indian classical music.^[26][28] Shankar opened a Western branch of the Kinnara School of Music in Los Angeles, California, in May 1967, and published an autobiography, My Music, My Life, in 1968.^[12][22] He performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, and found he disliked the venue.^[25] In the 1970s Shankar distanced himself from the hippie movement.^[29]

International career 1970–present[link]

George Harrison, U.S. President Gerald Ford, and Ravi Shankar in the Oval Office in December 1974

In October 1970 Shankar became chair of the department of Indian music of the California Institute of the Arts after previously teaching at the City College of New York, the University of California, Los Angeles, and being guest lecturer at other colleges and universities, including the Ali Akbar College of Music.^[12][30][31] In late 1970, the London Symphony Orchestra invited Shankar to compose a concerto with sitar; Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra was performed with André Previn as conductor and Shankar playing the sitar.^[4][32] Hans Neuhoff of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart has criticized the usage of the orchestra in this concert as "amateurish".^[1] George Harrison organized the charity Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, in which Shankar participated.^[25] Interest in Indian music had decreased in the early 1970s, but the concert album became one of the best-selling recordings featuring it and won Shankar a second Grammy Award.^[28][31]

During the 1970s, Shankar and Harrison worked together again, recording Shankar Family & Friends in 1973 and touring North America the following year to a mixed response after Shankar had toured Europe with the Harrison-sponsored Music Festival from India.^[33] The demanding schedule weakened Shankar, and he suffered a heart attack in Chicago in November 1974, causing him to miss a portion of the tour.^[34] In his absence, Shankar's sister-in-law, singer Lakshmi Shankar, conducted the touring orchestra.^[34] The touring band visited the White House on invitation of John Gardner Ford, son of U.S. President Gerald Ford.^[34] Shankar toured and taught for the remainder of the 1970s and the 1980s and released his second concerto, Raga Mala, conducted by Zubin Mehta, in 1981.^[35][36] Shankar was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for his work on the 1982 movie Gandhi, but lost to John Williams' E.T.^[37] He served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India, from 12 May 1986 to 11 May 1992, after being nominated by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.^[14][38] Shankar composed the dance drama Ghanashyam in 1989.^[22] His liberal views on musical cooperation led him to collaboration with contemporary composer Philip Glass, with whom he released an album, Passages, in 1990.^[6]

Shankar underwent an angioplasty in 1992 due to heart problems, after which George Harrison involved himself in several of Shankar's projects.^[39] Because of the positive response to Shankar's 1996 career compilation In Celebration, Shankar wrote a second autobiography, Raga Mala, with Harrison as editor.^[39] He performed in between 25 and 40 concerts every year during the late 1990s.^[6] Shankar taught his daughter Anoushka Shankar to play sitar and in 1997 became a Regent's Lecturer at University of California, San Diego.^[40] In the 2000s, he won a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000 and toured with Anoushka, who released a book about her father, Bapi: Love of My Life, in 2002.^[28][41] Anoushka performed a composition by Shankar for the 2002 Harrison memorial Concert for George and Shankar wrote a third concerto for sitar and orchestra for Anoushka and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.^[42][43] In June 2008, Shankar played what was billed as his last European concert,^[29] but his 2011 tour includes dates in the United Kingdom.^[44]