Alokananda Dasgupta

Alokananda Dasgupta is a composer based in Mumbai, India and is the daughter of the poet and filmmaker, Buddhadeb Dasgupta. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in English Literature from St. Xavier’s College. Alokananda was working on her English Literature Masters at Calcutta University when she decided to pursue her lifelong passion for music in Toronto. There she received a Bachelor of Music with Honours in Theory and Composition at York University, where she has also guest-lectured.

Alokananda gravitated naturally towards music composition for films. Her eclectic music palette has led her to work in National award-winning Marathi films like Shala and Fandry. She was also selected as one of five for the Mumbai Composers Lab in 2013. She received the Prabhat Purashkar and the Sanksriti Kala Darshan awards for the best background score in 2012 and 2014. Her work on her father’s films includes Anwar Ki Ajeeb Kissa, Tope, and Urojahaj, among others.

In 2016, Alokananda was invited to Berlin to attend the Berlinale Talents under the Music Composer and Sound Studio category. There she provided music and songs for the feature film Trapped. The composer later scored the Netflix Original Series Sacred Games 1 and 2, in 2018 and 2019 respectively. In 2020, Alokananda composed the music for AK vs. AK and won the 2020 Filmfare for Best Background Music (Series) for Sacred Games 2, which was also nominated for an Emmy for Best International Series. In 2022, she was recognized as one of the BAFTA Breakthrough Artists for India. Recent work includes two highly-rated series, Jubilee (2023), and The Jengaburu Curse (2023).