Shantanu Moitra

Some Lesser Known Facts About Shantanu Moitra

• Shantanu Moitra is an Indian musician. In 2014, he received the National Film Award for his music direction in the Telugu film Na Bangaaru Talli (2013).

• Shantanu Moitra belongs to a Bengali family with a music background. His father, Sailesh Moitra, was a sarod player. ^[5]Scribd.com

• At a very young age, Shantanu was taught music by his father. Shantanu, at the age of ten, bought his first acoustic guitar. He was also a bandleader during his school days, and in 1982, his school musical band organised the school’s first-ever rock show. In an interview, Shantanu talked about this and said,
  

  One of the major turning points in my life was buying my first acoustic guitar when I was 10. What was even better was receiving an award in school for my contribution to music at a time when my school, Springdales in Delhi, didn’t usually give awards for music. I went on to set up the school’s rock band and in 1982 we hosted the school’s first-ever rock show. When I look back now, I think the award instilled huge confidence in me.”

  

• After completing his college education, he worked as a client servicing executive at an advertising agency. One day, Pradeep Sarkar, the then creative head of the advertisement agency and the producer of the Hindi film Parineeta, asked Shantanu to compose a jingle. The music jingle was ‘Bole mere lips, I love uncle chips’ for the potato chips brand Uncle Chips, which quickly earned popularity. ^[6]Rediff.com

• Later, after the Uncle Chips jingle became a hit, Shantanu went on to compose Hindi pop albums like Ab ke Saawan, Mann Ke Manjeere: an album of women’s dreams for Breakthrough, and Sapna Dekha Hai Maine (2003) for Shubha Mudgal.

• In 2002, he signed his first Hindi film Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. Then, in 2005, he worked for the Hindi film Parineeta for which his music earned accolades.

• Thereafter, Shantanu worked as a music composer for many Hindi films like Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), 3 Idiots (2009), Rajneeti (2010), PK (2014), Pink (2016), and Gulabo Sitabo (2020).

• In 2008, he made his debut in the Bengali entertainment industry by working as a music composer for the film Antaheen. Subsequently, he worked for many Bengali films like Paanch Adhyay (2012), Aparajita Tumi (2012), and Buno Haansh (2014).

• In 2013, he worked as a background music composer for the Telugu film Naa Bangaaru Talli for which he won the National Film Award for best music direction.

• In 2018, he hosted the Bengali television music reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bangla. In an interview, Shantanu talked about the participants in the music reality show and said,
  

  I love such talents. Each and every contestant has a story, a story behind their musical journey. During this season of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa I have met so many young talents. Like, Lama, who is from North Bengal. He never had a proper training. His mother works as a labourer in a local tea garden. Yet their level of dedication and talent amuses me. What makes me happier is the innocence they have.”

  

• Besides composing music, Shantanu Moitra has a passion for travelling. In 2016, Shantanu went on a 100-day journey to the Himalayas. In his journey, he travelled to Ladakh, Lahaul-Spiti, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Tibet, and Arunanchal Pradesh. He also released a series of music on YouTube titled “The Song of the Himalayas,” which was influenced by Shantanu’s 100-day adventure to the Himalayas. In an interview, he talked about this and said,
  

  To me, it has been an internal journey, at the end of which I began to look at myself and my music from a new perspective.”

  

• In 2021, Shantanu travelled from Gomukh in Uttarakhand to Gangasagar in West Bengal, and in the expedition, he covered approx 3000 kilometres on a bicycle; he used a road bike. According to Shantanu Moitra, two years before the Corona pandemic, he planned a trip to Varanasi with his father Sailesh Moitra; however, his father passed away in 2021 after suffering from Covid-19. After completing the last rites of his father in Varanasi, Shantanu decided to go on Ananth Yatra. The objective of carrying the Ananth Yatra was to pay tribute to people who had lost their loved ones in the Covid pandemic. In October 2021, he started cycling alongside the bank of the river Ganges while carrying photographs of around 800 victims of coronavirus. In an interview, he talked about this and said
  

  These photographs, shared with me by people who lost their loved ones during Covid, were printed on discarded cotton wool and had Tulsi seeds in them. I wanted to perform a ceremony for them. The memorial is testimony to what those two years (of the pandemic) were. I dug those photographs in the soil. The metamorphosis of photos to plants signifies that that life goes on.”

  

• He documented his bicycle journey from Gomukh to Gangasagar in his new travel web series titled  “The Song of the River” on Disney+Hotstar. For the web series, Shantanu worked with seven musicians, and the songs in the web series were made available in music applications like Spotify, Apple Music, Gaana, and JioSaavn. The music artists who worked on the album are Mohit Chauhan, Maati Bani, Taba Chake, Bombay Jayshree, Sid Shriram, Kaushiki Chakravarti, and Ambi Subramaniam. According to Shantanu, he did not approach the artists for their musical careers but for the social welfare they were doing for society. He quoted,
  

  Mohit Chauhan and his wife fed dogs during the lockdowns. They now run an organisation called Animals Are Humans Too and feed dogs. Jayshree Bombay runs a school that teaches music to children with autism.” ^[7]The Hindu

  

• Shantanu Moitra has authored two books titled ‘On the Wings of Music’ and ‘Ferari Mon – Memories by Santanu Moitra.’