Hindi
Shashi Kapoor to receive Dadasaheb Phalke award
NEW DELHI: Veteran film actor and producer Shashi Kapoor, who charmed his way in Bollywood as an actor with his unique mannerisms, will receive the 46th Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2014.
The award is conferred by the Central Government for outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema. The award consists of a Swarn Kamal (Golden Lotus), a cash prize of Rs 10 lakhs and a shawl.
The award is given on the basis of recommendations of a Committee of eminent persons set up by the Government for this purpose. This year, a five member jury consisting of eminent film personalities, after due deliberations, unanimously recommended Kapoor for the prestigious award.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley conveyed his congratulations on the occasion.
Born on 18 March 1938, Shashi Kapoor is the youngest son of the late Prithviraj Kapoor and the youngest brother Raj Kapoor, both of whom have also been conferred this award. While Prithviraj Kapoor received this award in 1972, Raj Kapoor received it in 1988.
Shashi, who hails from arguably the largest film family in the world, started acting from the age of four, He acted in plays directed and produced by his father while travelling with Prithvi Theatres. He started acting in films as a child in the late 1940s. His best known performances as child artist were in Aag (1948) and Awaara (1951), where he played the younger version of the character played by his elder brother Raj. Shashi also worked as assistant director in the 1950s.
Shashi made his debut as a leading man in the 1961 BR Chopra film Dharmputra and went on to appear in more than 175 Hindi films, some of them made by his brother Raj under the banner RK Films among them Satyam Shivam Sundaram. He was a very popular actor in Bollywood during the 60s, 70s and until the mid 80s.
Shashi was one of India’s first actors to go international. He is known internationally for starring in many British and American films and the team of producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory starred him in The Householder (1963), Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Bombay Talkie (1970) and Heat and Dust (1982). He also starred in other British and American films such as Siddhartha (1972) and Muhafiz (1994). His last film as actor was in 1998 in the English Side Streets and also was the narrator the same year for the feature Jinnah.
In 1978, Shashi set up his production house Film Valas, which produced critically acclaimed films such as Junoon (1978) which starred his wife Jennifer Kendall, who was well-known on the British theatre scene, Kalyug (1981), 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), Vijeta (1982) which introduced his son Kunal and Utsav (1984). He also produced and directed a fantasy film titled Ajooba, which had Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor in the lead role. Jennifer passed away in 1984.
He also set up Prithvi Theatres in Mumbai to promote theatre as his father had always been a theatre actor along with acting in films. Prithvi Theatres is managed by Shashi’s daughter Sanjana.
Shashi was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 2011. He is also a recipient of three National Film Awards.
In a music industry that often rewards speed, spectacle, and instant recall, Navjot Ahuja’s journey feels refreshingly different. His story is not built on noise. It is built on patience, discipline, emotional honesty, and a quiet commitment to becoming better with every passing year. After 14 years of struggle, learning, performing, and writing, Navjot stands today as an artist whose success has not changed his centre. If anything, it has only made his purpose clearer.
For Navjot, music has never been about chasing fame alone. It has always been about expression. It is about writing more truthfully, singing more skillfully, understanding himself more deeply, and becoming a kinder human being in the process. That rare clarity is what gives his journey its beauty.
Where It All Began: A Writer Before a Singer
Indian singer and songwriter Navjot Ahuja’s musical journey began in the most familiar of places: school assemblies. But even then, what was growing inside him was not only the desire to sing. It was the need to write.
Long before he saw himself as a performer, he had already discovered the emotional release that writing offered him. For Navjot, words became the first true channel for feeling. Songwriting came before singing because writing was the only way he could let emotions flow through him fully. That inner pull shaped his artistic identity early on.
Like many young musicians, he sharpened his craft by creating renditions of popular songs.
Those experiments became his training ground. But the turning point came in 2012, when he wrote his first original song. That moment did not just mark the beginning of songwriting. It marked the beginning of self-definition.
A Calling He Did Not Chase, But Accepted
What makes the latest Indian singer-songwriter Navjot’s story especially compelling is the way he describes his relationship with music. He does not frame it as a career he aggressively pursued. In his own understanding, music was not something he chose. It was something that chose him.
There was a time when he imagined a very different future for himself. He wanted to become a successful engineer, like many young people shaped by ambition and conventional expectations. But life had a different script waiting for him. During his college years, around 2021, music entered his life professionally and began taking a firmer shape.
That shift was not driven by image-building or industry ambition. It came from acceptance. Navjot embraced the fact that music had claimed him in a way no other path could. That sense of surrender continues to define the artist he is today.
An Artist Guided by Instinct, Not Influence
Unlike many singers who speak openly about idols, icons, and musical role models, Navjot’s creative world is built differently. He does not believe his music comes from imitation or inherited influence. He listens inward.
He has never considered himself shaped by ideals in the traditional sense. In fact, he admits that he does not particularly enjoy listening to songs, especially his own. His decisions as a songwriter and singer come from instinct. He writes what feels right. He trusts what his inner voice tells him. He positions his music according to what he honestly believes in, not what trends demand.
That creative independence gives his work a distinct emotional sincerity. His songs do not feel calculated. They feel alive.
The Long Years of Invisible Struggle
Every artist carries a chapter of struggle, and Navjot’s was long, demanding, and deeply formative. One of the biggest challenges he faced was building continuity as the best new indian singer songwriter in an era where musical collaboration is increasingly fluid.
For emerging singers, especially those trying to build with a band, consistency can be difficult. Instrumentalists today have more opportunities than ever to freelance and perform with multiple artists. While that growth is positive and well deserved, it can make things harder for singers who are still trying to establish a steady team and sound around their work.
For Navjot, one of the most difficult phases came during 2021 and 2022, when he was doing club shows almost every day. It was a period of relentless performance, but not always personal fulfillment. He was largely singing covers because clubs were not open to original songs that audiences did not yet know.
For a new Indian singer and songwriter, that can be a painful compromise. To perform constantly and still not have the freedom to share your own voice requires not just resilience, but restraint.
“Khat” and the Grace of Staying Unchanged
After 14 years of effort, Navjot’s new love song Khat became a defining milestone. Professionally, he acknowledges that the song changed how society viewed him as a musician. It strengthened his place in the public eye and altered his standing in meaningful ways.
Yet personally, he remains unchanged.
That is perhaps the most striking part of his story. Navjot says his routine is still the same. His calm is still the same. His writing process is still the same. He does not want success or failure to interfere with the purity of his art. For him, emotional detachment from public outcomes is essential because the moment an artist becomes too attached to validation, the writing begins to shift.
His joy comes not from numbers, but from the attempt. If he has tried to improve his skill today, if he has written his heart out more honestly than before, then he is at peace.
Growth, Not Glory, Remains the Real Goal
Even now, Navjot is not consumed by labels such as singles artist, performer, or digital success story. His focus remains deeply personal. He wants to sing better. He wants to play instruments better. He wants to understand himself more. And he wants to become a kinder person.
That is what makes Navjot Ahuja’s journey so moving. It is not simply the story of a musician finding recognition. It is the story of an artist who continues to grow inward, even as the world begins to look outward at him. In an age obsessed with applause, Navjot reminds us that the most meaningful success often begins in silence, honesty, and the courage to remain true to oneself.
