Guwahati: Assam government has announced ‘Silpi Bota 2020’ to two veteran artistes of the state-Gopikanta Sinha and Apurba Bezbaruah. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will present the awards at Silpi Divas programme organised by Directorate of Cultural Affairs on January 17 at Jyoti Chitraban.
The award carries cash Rs. 2 lakh, a citation and angabastra.
It needs to be mentioned that noted artiste Gopikanta Sinha, who was born in 1932 has tremendous contribution in preserving Bishnupuri Manipuri folk songs, Rabindra Sangeet, Najrul Geeti, Gajal and Bhajan. He has also rendered his voice to many modern Assamese songs.
On the other hand, Apurba Bezbaruah who was in 1951 has so many popular Assamese numbers to his credit. The singer has hit numbers like ‘Kopou pahi tore khopat’, ‘Sah Gosor komol patot’, ‘nasoni O’, ‘Nibisaro aaji karo’ to his credit.
He is credited with initiating the trend of Bihuxuriya modern songs. In his musical journey of nearly four decades, this veteran singer has sung for more than 200 albums. With different experiments on folk songs of Assam, Apurba Bezbaruah has made innumerous contributions towards enriching modern Assamese music.
