Delhi’s czarina of culture: Meet Shobha Deepak Singh known for her contribution in promoting Indian arts

Shobha Deepak Singh has been a passionate promoter of Indian arts and culture for more than half-a-century now, from her first role as manager of the Kamani auditorium to her recent Lifetime Achievement Award. She has a deep understanding of fine and performing arts and pushes herself to make every stage show of the Kendra grow bigger and better. With an incredible support team, including her husband, she electrifies a culturally rich environment. With no formal training in the art, she designs costumes and jewellery, has authored three books with her collection of 80,000 photographs. Shobha is an inspiration to the world of arts and audiences.

When the students of Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra (SBKK) stage the legendary Ramlila, every year, they have one permanent member in the audience, occupying a seat in the front row. For 55 years, she has been marking her presence. Not because she directs and produces the dance-drama or helms the Institute but because Shobha Deepak Singh has a fiery passion for theatre, music, dance, painting, costumes and photography.

“When you have a child, you don’t think of leaving ever,” she says of her untiring work with the Kendra since 1968, when she was hired as the first manager of the 630-seater Kamani auditorium, a unit of the Bharatiya Kala Kendra Trust.

With a profound understanding of fine and performing arts, Shobha has shown strength and vision to pursue her dream: promoting and preserving Indian arts and culture. “There is healing in this for me; I attend every show because my mind keeps thinking how to make every presentation even better the next time,” says the 80-year-old, who now moves around in a wheel chair and with nasal cannula for oxygen.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Last week, when Ustad Amjad Ali Khan presented her the 2023-Sumitra Charat Ram Lifetime Achievement Award (instituted in memory of her mother) for promotion of Indian arts, and she pushed herself to stand up to acknowledge the adulation of the august audience, the fire in her was unmissable.

She bristles and crackles with the same energy and enthusiasm and pays attention to every detail of the Kendra’s activities round-the-year. That she is an inspiration and a conduit for the Kendra and its students and the world of arts and audiences is evident.

With an incredible support team that includes her husband Deepak Singh, Shobha seamlessly electrifies a culturally rich environment. “I have imbibed it from my mother; my family has always had deep love and respect for art and artists,” she says. And Delhiites know it.