Kalika Prasad Bhattacharya

Kalika Prasad Bhattacharya was an Indian writer, composer, singer, and literature analyst. Kalika belonged to the city of Silchar. Since he grew up in the state of Assam, he was very attached and connected to its music. Kalika had an inclination to music since his childhood. He learned to play the table quite easily and early for his age. He began taking interest in the regional music of Assam and West Bengal. He went to the Jadavpur University in Kolkata to study comparative literature which involved studying cultural, and linguistic relations. In the year 1999, the India Foundation for the Arts provided him with funds to support his research of Industrial Folk Music. The same year, Kalika also founded a folk music ensemble-Dohar. He formed Dohar with the vision of taking unheard folk music to all parts of the country and beyond.

The band has nine albums to its credit in association with Sa Re Ga Ma, Concord Records, and Sony Music. He gave his voice to several Hindi and Bengali songs. He was the playback singer for the Bollywood movie Gumshuda in 2010 and the Bengali films Chaturanga and Moner Manush. He also produced music for theatre ensembles including Kalyani Natya Charcha, Tritiyo Sutro, and Nandikar. He gave music to and also acted in the Bengali movie Jaatishwar which won a National Award. Kalika was fully devoted to exploring and supporting the diverse cultural and folk music in the nook and corner of the country.

He started the Sahaj Parav-an yearly festival held to appreciate unheard rural music. He patronized traditional Bengali music on the singing reality show Bengali Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and got appreciated for doing so. His band Dohar was given the honor of paying a tribute to the singer Bhupen Hazarika Bhupen Hazarika, born on September 8, 1926, was a >> Read More... , on his death in Bangladesh. He has been felicitated with the Sangeet Samman award in 2013 by the state government of West Bengal. Kalika died an untimely death in a car accident in Gurap village, Kolkata in 2017.