New Delhi, (PTI): After a lifetime dedicated to music which won him international acclaim and several honours, sitar maestro Padmabhushan Pandit Devabrata Chaudhuri's heart bleeds for those classical musicians, who despite being hugely talented, rotted in anonymity.

"India is a goldmine of talent in classical music, but unfortunately many of them are not known as there has not been an effort to drag them out of their anonymity," said the foremost exponent of Senia gharana, named after the legendary Tansen, in an interview with us.

Pointing out that some wonderful exponents of the prestigious music gharanas including Rampur, Agra and Sehaswan, lived and died in anonymity just because of the absence of a helping hand, Chaudhuri, popularly called Debuji, felt the need for a collective social endeavour to bring the musicians into the spotlight.

When asked about the possible reasons behind this scenario, the septuagenarian, who was the dean and head of the faculty of music and fine arts in the Delhi university for a rare three terms, pins it down to lack of proper support and patronage from the government and the media.

Neither the government nor the media are doing what they can for the promotion of classical music and musicians in the country, lamented the maestro who was conferred with the Padmabhushan and the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1992 and 1993 respectively.

"At a time when there is an unprecedented boom in the music industry it is strange to see the indifference on the part of the media houses and the government towards classical music," he said.