Accolade for Jim Ankan Deka

Singer, songwriter, composer Jim Ankan Deka has been awarded Renault Free The Music Award. The young music prodigy from Assam is the youngest son of celebrated Assamese litterateur of Awahon-Ramdhenu Era, pioneer Assam economist and heritage scholar Prof Bhabananda Deka and pioneer lady radio playwright, storywriter and children’s magazine editor late Nalini Prava Deka. The awardee has already received laurels globally for his highly acclaimed Hindi-Assamese music album as a tribute to Delhi gang-rape victim ‘Aawaz : Speak Up Against Sexual Violence’ and also performed live together with top international music bands including ‘Michael Learns to Rock’ from Britain, ‘Orphaned Land’ from Israel and ‘Deep Forest’ from France in company of music legends like Grammy winner Eric Mouquet. Incidentally, a broad spectrum of Indian and international musicians have already recorded music and performed under the baton of Jim Ankan Deka, who has to his credit several English, Assamese, Kannada, Bengali, Hindi, Nagamese, Khasi, Mizo and Goalporiya song albums.

Bangalore and Shillong based Jim Ankan Deka was a self-taught musician and had been performing from the age of three. He was also professionally trained in the Assamese Vaisnavite music of Borgeet and playing with khol during his childhood. From early teens he had been assisting in film direction, and was the chief assistant director of several documentary films including Assam Sahitya Sabha, Srimanta Sankardev and under-production full-length docu-feature biopic film Moi Eti Zazabor jointly directed by late Waesqurni Bora and Arnab Jan Deka, which is based on the life of legendary musician and Columbia University(New York) scholar Dr Bhupen Hazarika. Jim Ankan Deka brought out his first musical album Tumi Kowa Kothabor—The Things You Said in 1999 as an eighteen year old teenage prodigy with his own lyrics and composition. He shifted base to Bangalore in 2006 and set up his independent music studio and formed two music bands called Eastern Fare and Veenar, and has been composing songs and performing all over India and beyond. His pan-Indian and international musical foray had manifested in several albums of fusion music between Assamese and Hindi, Kannada, Bengali and English. He is also involved in trans-continental documentary film productions making his directorial debut with an Indo-American joint-venture film Nagaland : Journey Through the Choir of Clouds.

Artiste Jim Ankan Deka’s latest musical achievement at global stage has brought in boundless joy on the upcoming festive Bihu season in Assam and the entire North East India.