Bhupen Hazarika BR was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, poet, actor, filmmaker and politician from Assam, widely known as Sudha Kontho.
31 Facts About Bhupen Hazarika
2.
Bhupen Hazarika's songs were written and sung mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and Hindi.
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Bhupen Hazarika's songs, based on the themes of communal amity, universal justice and empathy, are especially popular among the people of Assam, West Bengal and Bangladesh.
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Bhupen Hazarika is acknowledged to have introduced the culture and folk music of Assam and Northeast India to Hindi cinema at the national level.
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Bhupen Hazarika received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction in 1975, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Shri, and Padma Bhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest award for cinema in India and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
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Bhupen Hazarika was posthumously awarded both the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award, in 2012, and the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 2019.
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Bhupen Hazarika was born on 8 September 1926 to Nilakanta and Shantipriya Bhupen Hazarika in Sadiya, an interior town of Assam on the bank of river Brahmaputra.
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Bhupen Hazarika's father was originally from Nazira, a town located in Sivasagar district.
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The eldest of ten children, Bhupen Hazarika was exposed to the musical influence of his mother, who exposed him to lullabies and traditional Music of Assam.
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Bhupen Hazarika's father moved to the Bharalumukh region of Guwahati in 1929, in search of better prospects, where Bhupen Hazarika spent his early childhood.
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In 1936, Bhupen Hazarika accompanied them to Kolkata where he recorded his first song at the Aurora Studio for the Selona Company.
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Subsequently, Bhupen Hazarika sang two songs in Agarwala's film Indramalati : Kaxote Kolosi Loi and Biswo Bijoyi Naujawan at the age of 12.
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Bhupen Hazarika studied at Sonaram High School at Guwahati, Dhubri Government High School and matriculated from Tezpur High School in 1940.
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Bhupen Hazarika completed his Intermediate Arts from Cotton College in 1942, and his BA and MA in Political Science from Banaras Hindu University.
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In New York, Bhupen Hazarika befriended Paul Robeson, a prominent civil rights activist, who influenced him.
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Bhupen Hazarika was exposed to the Spiritual, and the multi-lingual version of We are in the Same Boat Brother became a regular feature in his stage performance.
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Tez Bhupen Hazarika, their only child, was born in 1952, and he returned to India in 1953.
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Bhupen Hazarika began close association with the leftist Indian People's Theatre Association soon after returning from the US in 1953 and became the Secretary of the Reception Committee of the Third All Assam Conference of IPTA, held in Guwahati in 1955.
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Bhupen Hazarika was considered as a new trend setter in Bengali music.
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Bhupen Hazarika composed music for films from Bangladesh to which got international acclaim.
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Bhupen Hazarika was elected the President of the Asam Sahitya Sabha in 1993.
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In 1967, Bhupen Hazarika got elected as a member of Assam Assembly from Naoboicha constituency.
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Bhupen Hazarika was introduced to Kalpana Lajmi in the early 1970s by his childhood friend and India's top tea planter Hemendra Prasad Barooah in Kolkata.
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Bhupen Hazarika contested as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from the Guwahati constituency, persuaded by Chandan Mitra via Kalpana Lajmi which he lost to the Indian National Congress candidate Kirip Chaliha.
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Bhupen Hazarika was hospitalized in the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute in Mumbai in 2011.
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Bhupen Hazarika was admitted to the intensive care unit on 30 June 2011.
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Bhupen Hazarika died of multi-organ failure on 5 November 2011.
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Bhupen Hazarika's body lay in state at Judges Field in Guwahati and cremated on 9 November 2011 near the Brahmaputra River in a plot of land donated by Gauhati University.
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Bhupen Hazarika's funeral was attended by an estimated half a million people.
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Bhupen Hazarika lying in repose in Judge field, Guwahati, 8 November 2011.
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Bhupen Hazarika lying in repose in Judge field, Guwahati, 8 November 2011.