The panel discussion was held on September 3, 2024 at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai, as a tribute to Padma Shri Astad Deboo. He experimented, broke boundaries and created new paradigms that has an everlasting impact… he belonged to not one city, school, genre or creative form but seamlessly moved in all.
He was my childhood idol and I kept paper cutting and photos of him but got an opportunity to see him only once at Kamani Auditorium, Delhi… when I was researching for curation for the retrospective on him 2 years back, I understood how everyone who worked with Astad loved him so much.
No one owns Astad, yet a piece of his heart is within everyone who knew him!
For those who missed the event, here is the Video link to the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbOsID304fw
We are familiar with Edgar Degas’s art depicting ballet dancers! We are aware of fashion shows of Gaultier, John Galliano, Christian Dior, Alexander MacQueen, Valentino, Bibhu Mohapatra and costumes designed by Dali… all inspired by ballet. Ballet dancers have been a favourite muse of many artists and designers in the West. (https://www.vogue.com/article/balletcore-a-look-back-at-how-designers-have-been-inspired-by-dance)
But, what back home??? The person who comes to our mind is Padma Shri Astad Deboo, a fashion and style icon in both his personal life and as an eminent dancer.
Astad was trained in both Kathak and Kathakali, along with his personal learning of Western dances like ballet, Martha Graham style or learning from Thai puppetry and Manipuri dance. He incorporated his vast learning in every possible detail including music, lights, set design and textiles, working with only the best from the field like Farookh Chotia, Shantanu Shenoy, Neelesh Kale, Ritam, Ratan Batliboi and his team, Dadi Pudumjee, Eureka Moments, and designers like Archana Shah of Bandhej, Sandhya Raman, JADE, Ashdeen…
Kathak dance exponent, Aditi Mangaldas said it was at Astad’s performance where she saw for the 1st time an ensemble made her realise that Indian dance was more than just a single person interacting with audience, it was lights, sets, music and textiles!!!
Astad’s deep knowledge, passion and love for Indian textiles and technology made him take many efforts to give them a new cultural identity on an international stage.
Textiles traditionally have had deep synergy with dance in India to adorn the dancer and reflect that particular tradition eg. Specific garments and Ikat for Kuchipudi or Kanchivaram for Bharatanatyam… when the dancer wore them they represented not just the dance form but brought out the deeper personalities of each character they portrayed eg. Playful Krishna or romance of Radha or Tandava of Shiva.
We gathered to understand how he transformed them into breathtaking and magical drama through innovation, experimentation, and respect for the textiles and the designers.
This evening was a personal tribute from Asad Laljee, who tells us how he first met Astad, his relationship over a decade and how he was honoured to have hosted Astad’s choreography of ‘Same same But Different’ at the Royal Opera House, Mumbai – this will remain Astad’s last performance ever.
We were honoured with the presence of Astad’s sisters Kamal and Gulshan – they informed us of a book written on Astad that will be released end of 2024.
Some of Astad’s close friends narrated to us his struggles and his love for his friends and family, especially his mother.
Monica Shah spoke of Astad Deboo as a boundary-breaker whose signature style was as much about the textiles he wore as it was about his dance. For Astad, garments were a form of expression, and his costume choices—such as the temple-inspired attire themed around Hoysala—reflected a deep celebration of Indian culture. Monica reflected on how Astad’s passion for art and craft permeated his performances, turning each one into a rich storytelling experience. Through his work, Astad blurred the lines of creative collaboration, merging art with craft in a way that was uniquely his own. She described how he took hours to paint his face as he believed in perfection in everything he did!
Ashdeen reminisced about meeting Astad at the National Institute of Design (NID) and how their relationship evolved over the years. He described how Astad’s approach to dance was intricately tied to form and how his body moved seamlessly within his costumes. Ashdeen shared the example of the flying crane costume to illustrate Astad’s command over movement, noting that Astad had a distinct flair in everything he did. For Ashdeen, the attention to detail and Astad’s passion for dance were invaluable lessons that left a lasting impact.
Ritam Banerjee offered a deeply personal perspective, describing Astad Deboo as an enigma and a dream come true. He recalled how Astad taught him that to capture the essence of dance through photography, one must first understand the dance itself. Ritam shared photographs from various performances in Chicago, Mexico, and Jodhpur, explaining how Astad’s guidance helped him produce evocative images. He reflected on Astad’s love for experimentation and how his fluidity in motion brought together a culmination of global cultures in his work.
Thank you Monica, Ashdeen and Ritam for sharing your personal stories, anecdotes and artistic confluence with Astad.
Profiles of the speakers:
Monica Shah is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of JADE By Monica and Karishma, a leading luxury couture house in India. As a TED Speaker and advocate for craftsmanship, Monica has spearheaded JADE through notable initiatives such as the Grassroot Artisans Project. This project aims to craft a new visual language that transcends traditional frameworks by incorporating multiple crafts, adding depth, complexity, and modernity to the art form. Her commitment to Indian craftsmanship is also evident in the JADE Accessories collection in collaboration with PETA India, highlighting her vision for sustainable luxury. Monica’s impact on the fashion industry has garnered prestigious awards, including Forces of Fashion 2023 by VOGUE India and the Contemporary Craftsman Designer Award 2022 by PETA India. Recognized as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Luxury in India 2021 by Luxebook, Monica Shah continues to shape the landscape of luxury fashion with innovation and cultural advocacy.
Ritam Bannerjee seeks inspiration and challenge in diversity — rejecting, redefining, and bending genres to give his imagination and his images enough room to breathe. He shoots spas and slums, ketchup, and cars with the same intensity and focus that he reserves for Hollywood royalty and Fortune 500 CEOs. He plays no favorites between portraits and photojournalistic work, or advertising, architecture, automobiles, fashion, food, travel, and projects that fall between those stools. Known for his visual wit and high energy, Ritam’s craft is unorthodox, intuitive, and fun — and designed to draw out that invisible, elusive magic that lies ‘beyond the canvas’. In an age when conversations on cameras and lenses often become more important than the photographs themselves, he reminds his audiences about the power of simplicity. His Masterclasses with CNBC TV18 are a great example of that.
Award-winning textile designer Ashdeen Z. Lilaowala is known for invigorating and contemporizing the Parsi Gara embroidery tradition while retaining its essence. He studied textile design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. A passionate researcher, he travelled across China, Iran, and India to immerse himself in the evolution of the Parsi Gara embroidery tradition. In 2013, he published Threads of Continuity – The Zoroastrian Craft of Kusti Weaving, a book that documents his seminal research on the traditional and vanishing craft of Zoroastrian Kusti weaving. He has taught textile and fashion students as a part-time lecturer at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, and has written extensively about the Parsi Gara craft in publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and others. Lilaowala has several collaborations to his name including a recent collaboration with Maharani Radhikaraje Gaekwad of Baroda to showcase the Parsi Gara experience at the prestigious Laxmi Vilas Palace in Baroda.
Moderator: Poulomi Das, Founder of VarnikaDesigns, is a Curator for cultural heritage access and inclusion, educator, blogger and a cultural interpreter leader. She has over 20 years of experience in research and documentation of Indian arts, textiles, and heritage. She curated the retrospective on contemporary dancer Astad Deboo called ‘Breaking Boundaries’ in December 2022.
She has been a Senior Curator for the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum. And has consulted with projects like the upcoming Lord Krishna Museum, Dwarka, the Bihar and Buddha Smriti Park Museums, Patna, the RBI’s Monetary Museum, Mumbai, and the Hiremath Art and Heritage Foundation. She is the Founder of the ‘The Museum Memories Project’ since April 2020, the only one in the world which invites memories of museums visited by individuals across the globe. Poulomi is a Nehru Trust and Charles Wallace Fellow and an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) Fellow of the US government in 2010. She blogs at www.varnikadesigns.blog the website is www.varnikadesigns.com and www.themumeproject.com Instagram: @VarnikaDesigns @museummemoriesproject
Many many thanks to the entire team of Avid Learning led by Asad Laljee for this beautiful tribute to the legend Astad – Dhwani, Shantanu, Sagar, Ayeshah and Manohar.
Thank you Darshana, from JADE, for coordinating with us.
Thank you Kamal and Gulshan Deboo, Astad Deboo Dance Foundation for preserving his memories and garments.
All photos and video used in the panel discussion were with permission from Ritam Bannerjee and JADE.
For those who missed the event, here is the Video link to the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbOsID304fw
VarnikaDesigns 
Thank you so much for sharing full talks details, And many congrats! ma”am i saw full talk video. Thanks ritam Banerjee he share full video link on the next day. Really happy to see n know that people still want to see him n his work. Im glad.
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Thank you, Shamshul – Ritam also said that Astad’s work continues through you and Pavan and your teams 🙂
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Thank you Shamsul 🙂
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