Bhupen Hazarika: News

Bhupen Hazarika, known as the "Bard of Brahmaputra," was an Assamese musician, filmmaker, and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician from 2004 till his demise in 2011. He was a post-graduate in Political Science from the Banaras Hindu University and did his PhD from Columbia University in the US. After stellar work in the Bengali film industry, he entered the Hindi film industry in the 1970s. A lot of his previous songs in Bengali and Assamese were translated into Hindi. Since the age of 12, Hazarika made immense contributions to the world of arts through his musical compositions, lyrics, poetry, and award-winning films. An independent MLA in Assam Assembly during 1967-72, Hazarika joined the BJP in 2004 but lost that year's Lok Sabha election from Guwahati constituency. He was decorated with several honors and awards such as the Padma Shri in 1977, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1992, the Padma Bhushan in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan in 2012 (posthumous), and the Bharat Ratna (posthumous) in 2019. At the age of 85, he passed away in 2011 in Mumbai.