The Maharashtra government on Monday announced the establishment of a distinguished music institute to honor the legacy of legendary singer Asha Bhosle, who passed away on Sunday.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who made the announcement, said the decision was taken at a state cabinet meeting on Monday.
“The late Asha Tai proposed setting up a dedicated institute for music. The government will take this proposal forward. Necessary steps will be taken to turn the institute she envisioned into reality,” Fadnavis said in a statement on Monday.
“Bhosle wanted to set up the music institute as her contribution to music and discussed the idea with state cultural affairs minister Ashish Shelar after the process of identifying the plot of land was going on but she died before the process was completed,” a senior official revealed.
The institute is likely to come up in Bandra Reclamation Area and near Hotel Rang Sharda.
“It will be of international standards and will be designed to impart world-class music education to upcoming talents,” the official said.
This will be the second major music institute in Mumbai.
In January 2022, the state government, led at the time by Uddhav Thackeray, announced its decision to set up an international music college in honor of Lata Mangeshkar. It is named as ‘Bharat Ratna Lata Denanath Mangeshkar International College of Music and Museum’.
The state Directorate of Arts (DoA) has approved a 7,000 sq m plot of land at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus for the proposed institution. The state government also approved an amount $210.50 crore for its development.
The design and plan were also approved by the Mangeshkar family and an advisory board was created to assist the government in setting up the international college. The International Music College will have diploma and degree courses.
Lata Mangeshkar was alive when the International Music College was announced but was soon hospitalized due to pneumonia caused by Covid-19 infection at Breach Candy Hospital on 8 January 2022. She died on 6 February 2022.
