Vasantrao Deshpande Biography 
Vasantrao Deshpande was a famous Hindustani vocalist from Murtijapur. He was a great performer of Natya Sangeet also. In 1982, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contributions to Indian music. He learnt music from different gharanas and hence he has not been associated with any particular gharana. He performed both classical and semi-classical music also. Thumri, dadra and ghazal were his other specializations. Classical singer Rahul Deshpande is his grandson. An annual music festival titled Vasantotsav is arranged every year in Pune by "Dr Vasantrao Deshpande Pratishthan" and two awards will be given every year – “Vasantotsav Youth Award" and " Vasantotsav Award".
Vasantrao Deshpande was born in Maharashtra in the year 1920. As he was not interested in binding himself to a particular type of singing only, he learnt music from gurus belonging to different gharanas. At first he learnt from Shankarrao Sapre of Nagpur, his hometown. This was followed by Sureshbabu Mane of Kirana gharana, Asad Ali Khan of Patiala gharana, Aman Ali Khan and Anjani Bai Malpekar of Bhendibazaar gharana, and Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze. But he was most inspired by the singing of Dinanath Mangeshkar and Vasantrao. At the age of 8, he worked as child Krishna in Hindi movie Kaliyamardan. Later he appeared in movies like "Dudh Bhaat" and "Ashtavinayak".
Apart from singing, he was also an accomplished tabala and harmonium player also. He learnt the original versions of Thumri, dadra and ghazal from Lahore. For bettering in ghazal, he learnt Urdu a bit too. He was a popular "Marathi Natyasangeet" artist. A few of his popular plays include - "Katyaar Kaaljaat Ghusli", "He Bandha Reshmache", "Vij Mhanali Dhartila", "Meghmalhar", "Tukaram" and "Varyawarchi Varaat". He has also done playback singing for moer than 80 Marathi movies.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 25, 2014
