Srimanta Shankardeva (1449–1568) (Assamese: মহাপুৰুষ শ্ৰীমন্ত শঙ্কৰদেৱ Môhapurux Srimôntô Xônkôrdev), was a 15th-16th century Assamese saint-scholar, playwright, social-religious reformer and a colossal figure in the cultural and religious history of Assam, India. He is credited with providing a thread of unity to Assam straddling two major kingdoms (Ahom and Koch kingdoms), building on past literary activities to provide the bedrock of Assamese culture, and creating a religion that gave shape to a set of new values and social synthesis. The religion he started, Mahapuruxiya Dharma, was part of the Bhakti movement then raging in India, and he inspired bhakti in Assam just as Ramananda, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Basava and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu inspired it elsewhere.
His literary and artistic contributions are living traditions in Assam today. The religion he preached is practiced by a large population, and Sattras (monasteries) that he and his followers established continue to flourish and sustain his legacy.
Anup Jalota (Hindi: अनुप जलोटा}{Urdu: انوپ جلوٹا) (born 29 July 1953) is an Indian singer/musician, best known for his performances in the Indian musical form, the bhajan and the Urdu form of poetry: ghazal.
He is popularly known as the Bhajan Samraat (Emperor of Bhajans). Padmashree for 2012 has been conferred upon him in the field of Art-Indian Classical Music- Vocal
Anup Jalota was born in Nainital, Uttarakhand to Purushottam Das Jalota, a renowned exponent of bhajan and hails from the Sham Chowrasi Gharana of Punjab. He was educated in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Anup's brother, Ajay Jalota, currently lives in California. He has one older brother Anil Jalota and two sisters Anjali Dhir and Anita Mehra.
Jalota started his musical career as a chorus singer in All India Radio. He is usually backed by a santoor player, a dholak player, a sarod player, a sarangi player, a violinist, a sitar player, a tabla player and a guitarist. Some of his popular bhajans include: Aisi Lagi Lagan, Main Nahi Makhan Khayo, Rang De Chunariya, Jag Me Sundar Hai Do Naam, and Chadariya Jhini Re Jhini.
Dr. Sunil Kothari is a noted Indian dance historian, scholar and critic. He is also former Uday Shankar Professor at Ravindra Bharti University, Kolkata.
He is the recipient of Padma Shri award. He also received Sangeet Natak Academi for overall contribution to the Indian classical dance.
Professionally, he is a chartered accountant.
Sunil Kothari started his career with Times of India. He worked with the group for 40 years as a dance critic.
He travels throughout India, which helps him in his writing on Indian Dance. He showed by example from the hugely varied canvas of regional body languages of India in his book Chhau. Currently he lives in Asian Games Village ( Delhi)
He has written 12 books on different forms of Indian Classical Dance and allied Art-forms.
Victor Banerjee (Bengali: ভিক্টর ব্যানার্জী, Hindi: विक्टर बनर्जी) (born 15 October 1946) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi, Bengali and English language films. He has also appeared on a number of TV series on Indian television. He has worked for prominent directors like Jerry London, Shyam Benegal, Satyajit Ray, Ram Gopal Varma, Roman Polanski, James Ivory, Mrinal Sen and David Lean.
Banerjee was born to a of Bengali Hindu family and is a descendant of Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, a leading intellectual, a prominent man of his time and the first president of the Indian National Congress (1885).
He had his schooling in St. Edmund's, Shillong, and graduated in English Literature from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta.
In 1984, he acted as Dr. Aziz Ahmed in David Lean's film of A Passage to India, bringing him to the attention of Western audiences. Victor was nominated for BAFTA award for this role in 1986. He won two other awards for this role: Evening Standard British Film Award and NBR Award (National Board Review, USA).