He was the one who played Bagha’s dhol in Gupi Bagha Phire Elo. Although Rabi Ghosh mastered the art of matching his hand movements to the beats, but it was Ashim Sengupta playing in the background. Satyajit Ray had listened to him playing the dhol several times in different beats and speed, before he paid off the standby dhuli and chose Ashim to play in his film. Ray had said that Ashim had a commercial approach to his music and that had impressed him. After Gupi Bagha Phire Elo, Ashim had also played background scores in Ray’s Ganasatru, Ghare Baire and Sakha Prasakha. He had played the madol in a documentary film on Sukumar Ray, done by Satyajit Ray.

Ashim Sengupta has been in the music industry for over 40 years, mainly as a percussionist, sometimes accompanying artistes on the tabla, dhol or pakhwaj or sometimes playing in background scores or songs of films. He has a record of playing in over 200 films. His career started with Biraj Bau in 1972. His uncle, Manu Sen, was the director of this film. “I was learning the tabla at that time. I was initiated into music and tabla by Nirmal Chakraborty, a resident of Salkia, who taught music and tabla at Monimela at that time. As a boy, I was too shy to sing and preferred to play the tabla instead. In this way, I took to playing the instrument,” said Ashim. 

He would have to use his friend’s tabla to practise. “My family could not afford to buy a tabla for me, so I would go to a friend’s house to practise. It was not until I was in Class VIII that my aunt promised to buy me a tabla,” said Ashim. Later, he took lessons from Muktalal Kundu.

However, the turning point came when he started going to Jnan Prakash Ghosh for lessons. “This happened after Pahari Sanyal heard me play while accompanying singer Anup Ghoshal at a programme in Calcutta. Sanyal had praised me saying that I had given life to a lifeless object,” said Ashim. While taking lessons from Ghosh, Ashim also learnt pakhwaj, khol and Bangla dhol from other people. “In order to be a complete percussionist, I had to know how to play all these instruments. The music industry always wanted artistes who could play all these instruments deftly,” said Ashim. 

In his long career, Ashim has played in a number of films including Tapan Sinha’s Safed Haathi, Goutam Ghosh’s Padma Nadir Majhi and Antarjali Jatra, Prabhat Roy’s Shwet Patharer Thala, Utpalendu Chakraborty’s Chhandanir and Nabyendu Chatterjee’s Sarisrip. 

Other than films, Ashim has accompanied many well-known artistes like Ajay Chakraborty, Dwijen Mukherjee, Sreeradha Bandopadhyay at live programmes. Apart from Calcutta and India, Ashim has travelled outside the country to give lessons on taal in Indian music schools. “I have been to Banga Sammelani at the US three times. Apart from that I used to teach in music schools in different cities there,” said Ashim. 

At present Ashim is concentrating on his own academy, Ashim Music Academy and also is a music arranger. He has arranged music for many albums. “I try to organise shows on taalbadyam, music arrangements based on taal.

Rhythm is the most important thing in music which is established with the help of a percussion instrument. In order to learn music, one has to be familiar with rhythm,” said Ashim.

More about Ashim

DoB: September 3, 1952
Born in: Calcutta
Education: Class XII
Family: Mother, wife, son and daughter
Loves: Listening to classical music
Hates: Lies