The Vanraj Bhatia interview: ‘My music was unique then and is perhaps unique even now’ The acclaimed 90-year-old composer looks back on the music he made and looks ahead to the opera he hopes to finish some day. Vanraj Bhatia | Photo by Chirodeep Chaudhuri/Scroll.in On March 1, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai will pay tribute to film scores and songs composed by Vanraj Bhatia. Tabla player Zakir Hussain, the Symphony Orchestra of India, and Tushar Bhatia’s music group Swaradhara will perform Bhatia’s tunes. The 90-year-old composer will attend the event. Vanraj Bhatia is preeminent among the handful of Indian musicians who have studied Western classical music in depth and have then successfully mixed that knowledge with an understanding of Hindustani classical music. His studies and the resulting scholarships and awards gave him a more substantial and sustained exposure to Western musical thought than perhaps any other Indian composer.