Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (above) holds a Grammy he won in 1993 at his Jaipur residence; (below) Bhatt’s son Salil

Top artistes end up with many trophies in their lifetimes, leaving no room for them
Priyanka Dasgupta (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 3, 2020)

On a December evening that marked the first anniversary of film-maker Mrinal Sen’s death, his Chicago-based son and daughter-in-law opened the door of their Kolkata flat to friends and well-wishers. In an act of unusual generosity, the duo decided to give away the maestro’s possessions, including some of the trophies awarded to him.

Apart from awards like Dadasaheb Phalke, Padma or National Awards, an increasing number of honours — medals, figurines, framed citations — are bestowed on doyens in the film industry. Consequently, celebrity households often run out of storage space and have to constantly devise ways to preserve their prizes.

While trophies awarded to director Buddhadeb Dasgupta were remodelled as door handles of a bungalow he once owned in Kolkata, another veteran director had melted medals to make dining plates. “Preservation of awards is tricky,” said Poulomi Bose, daughter of Dadasaheb Phalke winner Soumitra Chatterjee, admitting the actor — who worked in 14 Satyajit Ray movies since his debut in 1959 — receives 15-odd recognitions a month.

“My father doesn’t like to display or discard them since they’ve been given with love and respect. Many awards are kept in my mother’s almirah or father’s office. We’ve carved out space to keep some at the landing near the staircase. Now he even keeps some underneath his bed,” she said. That seems to be a popular choice of space. Mrinal Sen also kept some awards under his bed.

But Dasgupta, who has 32 National Awards including seven Golden Lotus Awards (Swarna Kamal) to his name, has used some of his trophies for interior decoration. “While some figurines were turned into door handles, others are mounted on the wall,” he said.

The director recounted how once at a party in Raj Kapoor’s house, he found the actor’s awards sitting atop a rotating disc. “I don’t attach much importance to awards and can’t think of displaying them in such a way,” said Dasgupta. His wife and director, Sohini, added she has even given away some awards to relatives and domestic help due to space crunch.

Many other celebrities are also reluctant to turn their residences into a museum of sorts with a “display of achievements” so they put their awards to other uses.

Film-maker Rituparno Ghosh had once narrated how a renowned director served him dinner on plates made from medals he had won and each plate had the year of the award inscribed on it. He had also mentioned that another director — like Dasgupta — had had his awards turned into door handles of his farmhouse.

The celebrities, however, agree on one thing — special awards do get special treatment. Mohan veena player Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has kept the Grammy award that he received in 1993 in the drawing room of his Jaipur residence along with his Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Global India Music Award. “Initially, I kept my Grammy in an almirah. Later, I made a glass case as so many people wanted to see it. I also have a theft alarm at home,” said Bhatt.

Satyajit Ray’s family has kept the honorary Oscar that was awarded to him in 1992 and the Golden Lion for ‘Aparajito’ from the Venice Film Festival in a vault. But at home, no one is surprised with a trophy popping out of every cupboard.

With his son director Sandip Ray winning awards too, Sandip’s wife Lalita said storage was becoming a problem.

So sometimes the A-listers part with their awards as soon as they are received. “Carrying home framed citations is difficult since the glass is fragile. Sometimes, I give them away to students in the city I am performing in,” Bhatt told TOI.

Durga Jasraj, daughter of 90-year-old vocalist Pt Jasraj, said awards he won have been distributed to music schools across the globe. “Once when heavy artefacts were awarded to performers at a concert in Mumbai, a certain musician mentioned his humble home was too small to keep them. But the organisers took offence and banned the musician from performing at their institute.”

Some organisers are aware of this challenge, but say appearances have to be kept up. “It’s difficult to carry heavy metal trophies past security checks at airports. But as a festival organiser, I can’t give light-weight trophies since they will look cheap,” said Sangeet Natak Akademi winning sarod player Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, who also organises music festivals.

Shawls that accompany awards hardly take up space. And it’s common practice to distribute them. At Sen’s house last month, a shawl had been kept aside for actor Nandita Das while other belongings went to ordinary people, giving them a chance to own a piece of cinematic history.