From crossroads to true callingDebanjan Bhattacharjee
Almost nine years ago, Debanjan Bhattacharjee was caught in a make-or-break situation. He had to decide between a seemingly successful and stable career as an engineer and his dream of pursuing music. Standing at the crossroads, he decided to give himself a target - five years to prove his mettle as a musician.
Failure would mean embracing the conventional.
"It was a big risk, especially for a 25-year-old. But I owed that to myself and my music. I come from a simple middle-class family that is academically-oriented but musically inclined. So for us, music was food for the soul, not the body. I felt the need to step up and try to change that scenario without being completely dependent on my parents," explains Debanjan.
The 33-year-old Kolkata-based Indian classical musician has already performed in over 300 concerts, across 24 states and 65 cities in India, and 18 other countries.
Debanjan started his classical music training under the legendary Ustad Ashish Khan at the age of five, and performed his first stage solo in 2003, at 16. Soon, in 2008, he participated and won the All-India music competition organised by the All India Radio (AIR), earning the coveted President's gold medal award.
A win that, according to him, boosted his confidence as a musician.
A post-graduate in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpore, West Bengal, Debanjan uses his technical skills to better understand music, creating unique three-dimensional alchemy of music using art, science and technology.
"People usually judge and analyse music qualitatively, but my academic background sometimes gives me an edge by helping me look at it from a quantitative perspective as well. A balanced analysis then further enhances the music produced," he adds.
And it was this edge that gave him the confidence and creative ability to conceive a new form of recital - performing one of the oldest vocal styles in Hindustani Classical music - Dhrupad- on sarod, a style he has named 'The Dhrupad Initiative'.
No wonder that Debanjan's extraordinary talent was recognised by the HCL Digital Concerts who invited him to perform on stage in November 2019, followed by a performance in December, 2019, and then again in April 2020 as part of the ongoing HCL Concerts Baithak program.
Talking about the impact such a platform had on him, he says, "Certain experiences remain special for a lifetime, and the HCL Digital Concerts is just that. I remember being overwhelmed by the huge response I received just within a few days. That's phenomenal for any upcoming artist, and I was lucky to be a part of this."
HCL Digital Concerts is a platform meant to identify aspiring musicians and provide them with opportunities to showcase their talent through digital as well as physical music concerts.
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