Rita Ganguly

Rita Ganguly is an exponent in the Indian classical arts. An accomplished dancer, musician and vocalist, she was honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2000 and with the Padma Shri in 2003. She is the mother of actress Meghna Kothari and the younger sister of the famous Ravindra Sangeet singer Gita Ghatak.

Biography Rita Ganguly was born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, into a Bengali Brahmin family, and is the daughter of K. L. Ganguly, and Meena Ganguly. K. L. Ganguly was a freedom fighter and member of the Congress party. In 1938, he was selected by Jawaharlal Nehru to become the first editor of the National Herald, a newspaper founded by Nehru.

Rita therefore grew up in Lucknow, where the newspaper was based. She started learning Rabindrasangeet at the age of 12 under Gopeshwar Banerjee. and trained in modern dance at Martha Graham School, New York. She taught at NSD for thirty years and Ae Mohabbat... Reminiscing Begum Akhtar. She is the founder of Kaladharmi, Her play on Begum Akhtar, Jamal-e-Begum Akhtar, has been staged on many occasions a non-profit organization for the promotion of performing arts and Begum Akhtar Academy of Ghazals (BAAG), a ghazal academy.

Rita Ganguly was married to Keshav Kothari, a former secretary of Sangeet Natak Akademi and the couple has two children, son Arijeet a poet and a daughter, Meghna Kothari who is an actress in Hindi films. composed by Shantanu Moitra penned by Swanand Kirkire.

She has also sung for the film Sarkar (2005) the song Deen Bandhu .