National Film Award Winners

"I will render whatever Lord Siva makes me render. I never plan for my concerts. I render what comes."

"Our arts, particularly music, are more livelier than any sport. I play with my `raagas.' And there is no defeat here. Only victory for everyone - singers, listeners and the music itself."

"I have performed with British musicians. I have sung Rabindra Sangeet and French numbers too. Most often I include local flavour in my concerts to connect with people.]]"

"Style. It varies from person to person. Without it music will be monotonous."

"We are getting carried away by the on-the-move musicians. Most of the Carnatic concerts abroad are being organised by NRIs. The defining moment is when an artist is invited to a foreign land and applauded by the foreign nationals. They should forge artistic alliances and find new audiences by introducing people of other nationalities to our arts."

"Everything I did was deprecated by the media and others. I think I derived my strength from it. There was brouhaha over my singing my own compositions. I wondered why I cannot choose words to express myself. That’s what Tyagaraja did. He described Rama the way he saw him. Ironically many of my works are now being used by musicians and dancers. It’s heartening though. I never expected to reach where I am today. I learned music without knowing it will one day become my calling."

"As a mere fourteen-year-old child he composed songs in all the 72 Melakartha Raagas, which form the very backbone of the South Indian System of Raaga Music."

"He was one of the earliest South Indian Classical w:MusiciansMusicians to perform abroad. He has acted in films, sung for films and even scored the music for films. Apart from his own compositions numbering more than two hundred, he has breathed life into compositions of other composers whose original tunes were lost in the sands of time like w:Narayana TeerthaNarayana Theertha, Annammaachaarya, Purandara Daasa, Kaiwara Amara Nareyana, Kaiwara Amara Nareyana, Sadasiva Brahmendra, Bhadraachala Raamadaas and Maharajah Sri Swathi Thirunal."

"I have the honour to inform you that the Minister of Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu De Vabres, has conferred on you the award of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters). This award honours those who have distinguished themselves in the field of art and have contributed to spread of culture in France and throughout the world."

"Balamuralikrishna had made the country proud with his artistic imagery and outstanding performances of high order in Carnatic music. He enthralled classical music lovers and earned international laurels to motherland [India]."

"An enduring legacy of Balamuralikrishna is the wider accessibility of classical kirtanas to the public. Many of his contemporaries tend to treat classical and popular music as watertight compartments."

"The real issue underlying these controversies appears to have been a challenge to his philosophy of music; nay, that of the Trinity. Balamuralikrishna has long held that Carnatic music today is an entity outside the strictly religious domain. He remarked once that those who believed that concert singing denigrated the essence of Carnatic music should confine their singing to puja rooms."

"With all awards and accolades at the international level and his outstanding contribution to classical music, his appeal was not restricted to purists or the elite connoisseur. He endeared himself to the public at large by his tasteful rendering of light music and film songs."

"I would like to learn Carnatic music under his tutelage and become such a great singer that my Guru will say `sabhash after hearing me sing. She conferred the title of `Gandharva Gana Samrat" on him at the function organised by "Vipanchee.""

"The shelf-life of a heroine is very limited. But I feel that a true artiste should never retire. Even now, I can't say no to a role that excites me. But I don't see films as my career any longer. I do it for the fun and satisfaction."

"And you cannot imagine the excitement when I came to be cast with her in Sunil Dutt's 'Reshma Aur Shera'. It was like an unbelievable dream. The Rajasthan location of Jaisalmer and the hot deserts beyond that in the village of Pochina merely a few meters away from the Pakistan border. The arduous drive for hours into the interiors without any navigation and roads. Miles and miles of barren dessert and dunes with a scarcity of every possible material good, required for survival"

"I was and still am her great admirer and fan. She signified to me the epitome of Indian grace and culture. She possessed in her the mischievous streak of that precocious village belle and the spirited movement of a Shiv Tandav. She looked vulnerable and lost, searching for protection in one moment, yet knowledged and mature in another. You felt like protecting and guarding her from all the evil of the world and to gently wipe away any frayed eyebrows that may have accumulated on her face. Her performances were pure and clean, without effort and deliberate design. They were just a part of her - simple and soft."

"Dinner followed thereafter among a small group of common friends, a surprise being the presence of my favorite Waheeda Rehman. Now aged and well within her years, she to me described what the conventional Indian woman ought to be in look and behaviour. Those early films 'Pyaasa' and 'Kaagaz ke Phool' and 'Chaudhavin ka Chand' and 'Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam' are unforgettable for the charm and grace and childlike softness of an ethereal looking Waheeda ji, alluring and dynamic by the intensity of her simple and endearing looks and performance."

"The instant Waheeda Rehman arrived for her ten days shooting in Calcutta, she charmed every member of Ray’s unit. She lacked star airs and graces, never behaved in a pretentious manner and was content to go about off the set in her own face without make-up. There was an unspoilt quality about her personality and she was conspicuously receptive to Ray’s direction. She was pliable, with few ingrained mannerisms."

"Everyone is born for something. This girl was born for the camera."

"Cinema is a product of society. You look around you, the way women dress up for parties is no longer the same."

"In those days the heroes and heroines had to play characters, which were essentially good. Now there is no such compulsion. And it is a good thing. I like the choices Vidya Balan has made. People say mine was the golden age of cinema. I think we are on the threshold of another golden period."

"A good artiste should be able to portray any kind of role. Guide is closest to my heart because Rosie was a very mature character. She is married to Marco and yet decides to go in for a live-in relationship with Raju. Many producers saw it as a negative role, a wrong step at that stage of my career and advised me not to do it, but to me a role was a role. But sometimes personalities do come in the way."

"Yes, my acting was not stylised. I always underplayed, maybe because I never learnt acting. I thought the best way is to feel it and do it. And when you feel it, the emotions come out naturally. Gulabo (Pyaasa) was liked by people and I started getting different roles. If I liked a story my attitude used to be: this is the scene, this is the character and I have to do it. I never thought about the repercussions of doing a character."

"I definitely think this is the best time to be in the industry. Earlier, films were made on a set pattern- love story, family drama, one is rich and other is poor type formulas. But today there are different kinds of films being made and accepted by the audience. I wish I was there in the industry today...I wish I was born in today's time."

"I don't believe in remakes. I think original films are classics and one can't make it or match up to it (original film) the same way. And even if they do there will be comparisons...it's not a good idea,""

"It was important to have compassion, [which, she added, came ]] partly from acknowledging we are one."

"What matters most in life is good health and a good night's sleep.""

"Take risks and don't fear failure"

"Guide, Pyaasa — these are my films that can be remade with current actors. But the music and lyrics should not be changed. Because you cannot have a samba or bhangra beat for the seduction scene in Pyaasa...the beauty will be lost."

"The director's word used to be final. Today directors don't even come on sets for a dance sequence. Its canned by the choreographer."

"Arre bhai...there is so much more to Indian music than those beats. I have done bhangra...nothing against it. But why do we present only that to the Indian and global audience. Punjabi language and music has become the language of the film industry unfortunately. Be it Singh is King or London Dreams or New York Beats are the same. agreed you cannot use classical or folk music in New York or Singh is King but London Dreams — it's supposed to be a musical. Music should have been the soul of it. But that is the weakest thing in the film. So much could have been done — classical music and folk music could have been used. But they didn't. They want to finish of work ASAP. Quantity, not quality has taken over."

"How often do you come out of a film these days humming a song? Earlier I thought that my age had something to do with it. But then I spoke with some youngsters and they seemed to agree in retrospect.""

"Today that rarely happens. Most often the songs are used as a relief. They have nothing to do with the film per say. And all look almost the same. Just replace the central characters and a step here and there...choreography remains the same in most cases. So does the beat. We have so many classical dances and folk dances in the country but nobody seems to be using them."

"Music earlier used to be an integral part of the film. The background score and the songs were as important, to take the story forward as were the screenplay and dialogues."

"I've made a few films and by the grace of God, you've liked them."

"There are so many acting schools these days. Maybe, the new generation of actors is forgetting that acting is more emotional than mechanical. Take dancing, today's dancers are not dancing; they're just performing a drill to some beats."

"The effortless ease with which his tried vocal chords alternately contrasted the vibrant and tender shades is another special characteristics of Bhimsen’s rendition, capable of capturing the subtlest tones, at once showcasing the aesthetic majesty and grandeur of his exceptionally captivating quality of singing."

"What is more, Bhimsen was as much at home in encapsulating the classical mode as in toying with the lighter variety of music. While his alap, bhadat and bandish in the classical mode sported a proportioned, balanced and serene majesty of the melodic range, the lighter Bhava Geet, Thumri, Abhang and Dasapadas were redolent with discreet lyrical flavour."

"His gifted voice could exfoliate the contrasting emotions of anguish and ecstasy with equal felicity; his impassioned rendition of both the major melodies like a Thodi or Kalyan in their multifarious variations and their minor counterparts like Bhoop or Abhogi with equal aplomb. In either case, one could only marvel at his unfailing deep, powerful and penetrating vocalism. Equally emphatic was the way he could throw away the values and sanctity of sweetness to unleash a flurry of rollicking bol-taans, an exquisite feat which was not easily fathomable by any other artiste in living memory."

"He was a genius who could not only transcend all theoretical boundaries of a technique, but verily transport any category of listener to a sublime realm. No wonder, he had among his fans as many votaries of Hindustani style as its Carnatic counterpart."

"What captured the heart and soul of the discerning listener was his uncanny craftiness and skill, the unfailing imaginative flights, rhythmic continuity and singular charm, making their lasting impact."

"...his chiselled style was an amalgamation of the very best in the tradition of Hindustani classical music, nay music in its fullness, a musical inheritance that goes back to the all-time greats like a Thansen, a Tyagaraja or a Beethoven."

"One of the illustrious disciples of the famed, Kirana Gharana, hallowed by such great luminaries like its styliser Abdul Karim Khan and his own legendary mentor Rambhau Kundagolkar, better known as Sawai Gandharva, Bhimsen by his stentorian vocalism lent a new dimension to the gharana."

"He was a great vocalist but even a greater human being. He used to treat me like his daughter and we used to meet frequently. I am fortunate that I got an opportunity to record a bhajan with him. I was very scared while singing with him but he encouraged me"

"Pandit Jasraj, he was a chaumukha gayak: a man who revelled in a bhajan or a khayal with equal verve and joy"

"Such was Joshi's talent that he effortlessly changed tracks from classical music to abhang, natyageet, semi-classical and even playback singing."

"His exposition of a Khayal is a perfectly balanced presentation showing his excellence in all its varied components."

"Music challenged him and he pushed its boundaries."

"The legendary vocalist Bhimsen Joshi emerged from those remarkable days when creative processes were marked by diversity of thought and emotion."