R CITY pays tribute to the loved and respected qawwal duo Shri Shankar & Shri Shambhu as it hosts the ‘Sarvashri Shankar Shambhu Music Festival’, on the 5th Feb 2023. The festival celebrates the 10th anniversary of Shri Shankar & Shri Shambhu’s beautiful journey in the field of music and playback singing. The festival is an ode to the rich legacy and transcendent musical composition that has garnered the love and awe of millions of fans over the years.

Well-known artists from the music fraternity like Ustaad Rashid Khan Sahab, Shreya Ghoshal, and Ranjit Barot will be performing Live on 5th Feb, at the courtyard of R CITY along with Deepak Pandit, Paras Nath, Madhubanti Bagchi, Murad Ali Khan, Ojas Adhiya, Ajay Joglekar, Gaurav Vaswani, Prashant Sonagra and Swaranjay Dhumal. Music lovers will have a chance to enjoy soulful singing as well as string and percussion instrumental music. All they need to do is complete a free albeit mandatory registration for the event on BookMyShow.

Each year, the day is celebrated by presenting the ‘Sarvashri Shankar Shambhu Memorial Award’, to artists who have created a mark in the field of music through their sheer dedication and noteworthy contribution. This year, the 10th annual ‘Sarvashri Shankar Shambhu Music Festival’ will see eminent personalities like Ustad Rashid Khan Sahab, Shreya Ghoshal, and Ranjit Barot being felicitated with the illustrious and distinguished award.

Shankar & Shambu garnered immense admiration and honor from the Urdu-speaking community for their strong command over the Urdu language, which included the memorization of Urdu couplets with heavy Islamic content. A highlight in their musical journey was their live performance at the Urs Sharif of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti at Ajmer on the 4th day of Mehfil Khana which happened to be the last day of Urs Sharif. When the duo started performing on the qawali,“Salaam, Mehboob-e-kibriya se Mera Salaam Kehna”, the audience was deeply moved into tears, with the soulful and magnanimous performance that made them a sensation overnight. They soon got established as Sufi Qawwals and playback singers in the Hindi film industry and lent their art of music in several Bollywood movies like “Barsaat Ki Raat”, “Professor and Jadugar”, “Teesra Patthar”, “Begunah Qaidi”, “Laila Majnu”, “Badal”, “Mandir Masjid”, amongst others. Their mastery in the Urdu language made them dominate the music scene in the nostalgic era of radio, which made them a household name in the country.