Nandu Bhende

Nandu Bhende

Bhende (front) with Savage Encounter, 1975
Background information
Birth name Sadanand Atmaram Bhende
Also known as Nandoo Bhende
Born 1955
Died (aged 58)
Mumbai
Genres Rock, pop, blues rock, soul
Occupation(s) singer, musician, songwriter, actor
Years active 1970–2014
Labels HMV, TIPS
Associated acts Velvette Fogg, Brief Encounter, Savage Encounter, Atomic Forest Nandu Bhende Band

Nandu Bhende (c.1955 – 11 April 2014) was an Indian singer and actor.

Life

Nandu Bhende was the son of the Marathi actor-director Atmaram Bhende and Dr Asha Bhende (Lily Ezekiel).

He was a theater artist, singer, music composer, music producer. He was one of the pioneers of rock music in India.

Bhende sang with 1970s bands such as Velvette Fogg, Brief Encounter and then Savage Encounter. He later went on to perform the roles of Judas in Alyque Padamsee's production of Jesus Christ Superstar and the role of Jesus in the Bangalore version of the same opera; this lead onto further roles in Tommy, Fantastiks and Jaya. He was also a playback singer in Bollywood films, his most famous work being in the 1982 musical “Disco Dancer”, for which he received a Gold Disc. His maternal uncle is Nissim Ezekiel.

He died on 11 April 2014 at Mumbai.[1]

Bands

He performed with various bands like Savage Encounter, The Brief Encounter,Velvette Fogg,Nandu Bhende Rock Revue,etc..

His latest venture was Nandu Bhende Encounter: Last performed on 27 March 2014 at High Street Phoenix, Mumbai @ Tribute to The Beatles.

Theatre Performances

Nandu's performance in "Superstar" as Judas made Dr Jabbar Patel cast him as "Mack the Knife" in "Teen Paischacha Tamasha", a Marathi Musical version of Brecht's "Three Penny Opera". This musical adapted by P.L. Deshpande went on to perform over 200 shows and is still remembered for its path-breaking music score which was partly composed by Nandu. Playing the title role of the deaf, dumb and blind boy in the Indian production of Pete Townsend's "Tommy" followed in 1982 for which Nandu scored the music, adding a couple of original compositions. Recently, Nandu sang and acted the main role in the BPL—Best of Theatre—series sponsored "Jaya" to great critical acclaim. This was India's first original Rock Opera and was performed in grand style with a cast of over 40 people. Nandu has also produced numerous Theater productions which have gone to stage thousands of shows throughout the country. Some of them are "The Fantastiks", "Double Trouble", "Hanky Panky", "Rashoman", "The Yours, Mine and Ours Show" etc.

Theatre Productions

Singing

Bhende has sung playback for Hindi films for music directors such as R.D. Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal and Bappi Lahiri for whose film "Disco Dancer" Nandu went on to fetch a Gold Disc. In 1980 Nandu teamed up with Music India to produce the very successful dance albums "Disco Duniya" and" Disco Nasha". HMV snapped up Nandu in 1986 and two lively disco albums followed "Disco Zamana" and Disco Mazaa". Nandu then went on to record his first English album for HMV "GET ORGANIZED" which featured his original compositions as well as a few songs from a collection specially written for him by the Sahitya Academy Award winning internationally acclaimed poet Nissim Ezekiel. The Hindi Pop Album "TERE LIYE" followed soon after. In 1997, the recording company Tips, released "Aaa Jaane Jaa", a Remix album with Nandu Bhende.In 2001, Nandu released another Remix album, this time for Universal and in Marathi. It was called "Spicy Mango-Raapchick Remix" and became a big hit among the youth of Maharashtra

These films include:

Albums

TV serial composer credits

Film credits

References

  1. 1 2 Badgeri, Manoj (11 April 2014). "Veteran Marathi musician Nandu Bhende dead". The Times of India. TNN. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
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