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| Antara Nandy |
Born on December 11, 1999, in the Sivasagar district of Assam, Antara is the first of two children of Animesh Nandy and Jui Nandy. She gave her first major public performance at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata at the age of 9 years. She started her training under Padmashree Ustaad Raashid Khan at the age of 5 years.
Antara released her debut album 'Ei Jibon Nohoy Xuna Bondhu' (this is not life my friend) in 2010 when she was just 11 years old. She collaborated with renowned singers like Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Pulak Banerjee, Debojit Saha, Luna Bharali Das and Debajit Choudhury in the album. The album was produced by Dr. Amal Saikia of Encore Entertainments. Her second album 'Eso Matoh Lakkhi Devi' (a Bengali devotional album) with Bollywood playback singer Raghav Chatterjee raced up the charts to become the TOP 4 album within 3 weeks of its release in Kolkata. She had sung Borgeet and bihu songs in other collaborative albums.
In 2012 Antara collaborated with Award winning Assamese musician Jim Ankan Deka on a campaign against violence towards women. The duo along with Assamese singer Queen Hazarika and playback singer Ritwika Bhattacharya released a music video 'Awaaz - speak up against sexual violence', where Nandy raised her voice against child sexual abuse. The song was produced by Bangalore bast Eastern Fare Music Foundation and the video was directed by Parmita Borah. The video won several awards in various music and film festivals including Mumbai Shorts International Film Festival, Noida International Film Festival, Global Music Awards and Hollywood Shorts Reel.
In 2013, she sang two songs 'Police Babu' and 'Najanu' for Hengul Theatre. Najanu was nominated for 'Ramdhenu Music Awards 2013' in the Best Female Singer category.Antara also sang in quite a few films in Gujrati, Tamil, Bengali and Assamese languages. The most notable among them is 'Nixati Joto Ronge' from the Assamese film 'KHEL- the Game'. She had recorded a number of theme and title songs for various Bangla TV seriels which were aired on Star Ananda, ETV Bangla and other channels.
Antara shot to fame with her entry into the finals of 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs 2009', a music reality and talent show conducted by the Zee TV, which proved to be the stepping stone of her life. She was praised and appreciated by the judges of the event which includes singers and musicians like Asha Bhosle, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Shaan, Daler Mehendi, Preetam, Alka Yagnik and Abhijeet.
In June, 2015, Antara released her first Assamese music video Aakaxok Subo Khojo composed by Jim Ankan Deka which is a part of the musical series 'ChaiTunes' produced by Eastern Fare Music Foundation, and a concept created by Music Malt, Bangalore. Noted Assamese songwriter Raj Dweep penned down the lyrics. Directed by Parmita Borah, the video was shot by Nishal Lama at Innerspace Studios, Bangalore.
Antara is a CCRT Scholar (Centre for Cultural Talent Reserch by Government of India). She is the winner of All India Inter School Classical Vocal Contest held in Noida in 2015. She is at present a student of ITC Sangeet Research Academy where she is taking training under Ustaad Wasim Ahmed Khan. She is also currently been trained for Western classical vocals at KM Music Conservatory under the guidance of A. R. Rahman. Antara is the youngest singer and ambassador of the famed 'Alive India In Concert-I', Bangalore which was a movement started by the few like minded musicians for the musicians. She is at present a student of Delhi Public School.
