Mr. Vasantrao Damle alias Pandit Damle,( son of late Vishnupant Damle founder of Prabhat Film Company) and his wife Neela Damle, will be felicitated by Swar Aalap, an organisation, which has been encouraging Musicians from Indian entertainment industry. According to Mr. Dinesh Ghate, founder of Swar Aalap,which is in its 12 year thought of felicitating the couple, for their contribution to Film and Music world respectively.Marathi Movie world spoke to Dinesh Ghate, who is organising his show at Ravindra Natya Mandir to pay tributes to Kishore kumar, besides felicitating these few veterans from entertainment industry.

“This is 100th year of Indian film industry and we thought of felicitating the oldest music arranger and Musician Bahadur Nanji, who is 93 today. When we heard about the contribution of Damle couple in their respective field, we also thought about felicitating them on this occasion. I was overwhelmed, when I met this simple living couple at their Shivaji Park residence. Vasantrao who played the child artiste in many Prabhat films, is the only living person from the film ‘Sant Tukaram’ made by Prabhat and was the first talkie film from India, shown at the Venice Film festival. Vastantrao has also written a book, on his experience with Prabhat films, recalling all old memories of veteran music directors, actors who worked with Prabhat those days. Hence we thought of honouring him on this occasion,” said Mr. Dinesh.

” I was also glad to know about the background of Neela Damle, formerly Neela Kale , daughter of Madhav kale, the actor and director of Hindi films of silent era. But, more than that what inspired me was her spirit to keep the music alive. Her mother was a music exponent, forming the first all women orchestra in India during 30s. Neela continued her passion playing all musical instruments after marriage. She was a Doordarshan artiste and has been recognised as a Stylophone Queen, the name given to her by Music director kalyanjibjai. She still plays the tunes of old Bollywood hits on that compact stylophone instrument, which is not an easy job. When I consulted my colleagues about felicitating them; they immediately agreed.” he concluded.