Santoor Maestro Pandit Ulhas Bapat No More

Pandit Ulhas Bapat, a renowned Santoor player breathed his last today after a prolonged illness. It is a great loss to Indian Classical as well as film music industry. Incidentally he chose 4th January (R D Burman’s death anniversary) to depart from the world. He admired R D Burman and worked with him from Ghar (1978) to 1942 A Love Story (1994).
Creative, perfectionist and dedicated. This is how we describe Pandit Ulhas Bapat. Born on 31st August 1950, Pandit Ulhas Bapat started learning tabla, at the age of 5, to get the acquainted with the sense of rhythm followed by some vocal training and finally the santoor under the able guidance of Zarine Daruwala Sharma, Pandit K G Shinde and Pandit Waman Sadolikar.
He began his Hindi film career with none other than R D Burman, giving background music for Ghar (1978). Before that he played santoor for Marathi songs too. His discography also includes films like In Custody (1994), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Water (2005), The Namesake (2006) and Life of Pi (2012). Our tribute to the maestro who said – It is better to be a Maestro in performance and student in attitude!!

A few songs in which he played the santoor –

Jait Re Jait (1977) –

Ritu Hirva –

Angoor (1980) –

Ijazat (1987) –