Louis Banks, born as Dambar Bahadur Budaprithi in Darjeeling, West Bengal on 11 February 1941, is better known as the Godfather of Indian Jazz. Nominated for a Grammy Award, he is a jazz musician, keyboardist, producer, film composer and singer.
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When his father George Banks, a trumpeter, noticed little Dambar’s interest in Western music, he changed his name to Louis Banks just like he had when he joined a European band in the early 1940s. Louis was introduced to jazz only after college, when he moved to Kathmandu to play with his father's band. He joined R.D. Burman in 1974 and that was when his career took off. As a music director, he has composed music for two movies, “Monsoon Wedding” (2001) and “Straight” (2009). Famously, he has composed the iconic tune “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”, for the Doordarshan short film on national integration.
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