Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
Veteran composer Pandit Oak from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar was honoured with the prestigious ‘Asha Radio Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the inaugural Maharashtra Asha Radio Gaurav Puraskar 2025, held at the Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium in Mumbai.
Organised by the Department of Culture, Government of Maharashtra, the event saw chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, cultural minister Ashish Shelar, and legendary singer Asha Bhosale presenting the honour. Pandit Oak, a senior-grade composer at All India Radio (Akashvani), has shaped Maharashtra’s musical journey for over 25 years composing over 600 songs for Akashvani and more than 1,000 for other platforms. His musical features number over 100. Beyond music, Oak wears many hats: singer, instrumentalist, teacher, composer, playwright, writer, poet, and actor. Among his acclaimed works is the radio series ‘Mrudgandhachi Gaani’, which revisited raga-based songs from Marathi films, broadcast from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Akashvani Kendra. Another milestone was ‘Rang Swaranchi Gangotri’, a statewide broadcast that traced original bandishes behind Marathi musical theatre hits. He has also composed over 500 khayal-style bandishes, and his upcoming book, ‘The Various Forms of Music in Marathi Musical Dramas’, is set to be published by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.