Guwahati, Sept. 4: The Assam directorate of cultural affairs has decided to honour renowned folk musician Kalikaprasad Bhattacharya, who passed away recently, by observing his birth anniversary on September 11 as Loko Songhoti Divas.

He is being honoured for his contribution to popularisation of folk music of the region on the national and world stage. The day will be marked by a cultural programme at Rabindra Bhawan, organised in association with Byatikram Masdo, from 6pm.

The programme, Gane Pranbondhue Daki, will include felicitation of Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Prabhat Sarma, a lecture on the Life and Work of Bhattacharya, a musical performance directed by Nanda Banerjee, a song and dance performance by Bangladeshi folk artiste Dil Bahar and a rendition of Gane Pranbondhue Daki by West Bengal singer Tina Ghoshal.

A painting exhibition will also be held at Rabindra Bhawan from 3pm.

Bhattacharya was a popular folk singer and researcher whose life was prematurely snuffed out at the age of 47 in a tragic car accident near Hooghly in West Bengal on March 7 this year. He was born and brought up in Silchar, in a musically inclined family. His inspiration was his uncle Ananta Bhattacharya and he learnt to play the tabla at an early age. His fascination with the tabla propelled him towards various ethnic percussion instruments. In this period, he also trained in vocal music. This eventually led him to the folk music of Bengal and the Northeast. Following a TV programme, in which he promoted Bengali folk music, he achieved a huge fan following.

He formed folk band Dohar in 1999 to spread the relatively unknown songs of rural Bengal. Dohar's performances were original and the band was able to fuse urban feelings with traditionally vibrant and melodious folk tunes. The band had released nine folk music albums directed by Bhattacharya. Besides singing playback for Hindi and Bengali movies, Bhattacharya also scored music for theatre groups and wrote research-oriented articles. He is also known as a Tagore scholar. He sang Bhupen Hazarika's songs at concerts and was closely linked with Hazarika's birth anniversary celebrations in Bangladesh last year.