Anupama Bhagwat

Anupama Bhagwat was born in Bhilai and introduced to the sitar at nine by R. N. Verma. At thirteen she began training with Pandit Bimalendu Mukherjee, the Bhilai-based musician regarded as a doyen of the Imdadkhani gharana, and she remains one of his best-known disciples. She took a Master's degree in music from Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya and is now based in Bengaluru.

She won first position in the All India Radio music competition in 1994 and held a national scholarship from the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1993 to 1996. Since 1995 she has performed at festivals including the Dover Lane Music Conference in Kolkata, Saptak in Ahmedabad, the Sankat Mochan festival in Varanasi and Baba Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan in Jalandhar, and abroad at the Southbank Centre in London, the Musée Guimet in Paris, MIT, Berkeley and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. She has recorded several albums and has also taken part in cross-genre projects.

An asteroid discovered in 2006, 185325 Anupabhagwat, was named after her.

Bhagwat plays in the gayaki ang, the vocal-modelled manner central to the Imdadkhani school: the melodic line is drawn out as a singer would phrase it, with an unhurried, meditative alap before the composition. Her playing is also described as notable for the speed and clarity of its taans.