Bollywood

POWERFUL PEOPLE: ART, LEGACY, AND INFINITE EXPRESSION

by Vinta Nanda February 7 2025, 12:00 am Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins, 14 secs

Gopika Dahanukar carries forward her mother Prafulla Dahanukar's artistic legacy, blending tradition and innovation through music, visual art, and community-building across Mumbai, Auroville, and beyond. Vinta Nanda begins to understand her.

Photography: Vinta Nanda

Gopika Dahanukar, daughter of the legendary artist Prafulla Dahanukar, merges art, music, and movement to encourage creativity across generations. Through the Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation, Gopika and her sister Gauri empower artists to explore both ancient and contemporary techniques. Living between Mumbai and Auroville with her partner Nadaka, Gopika leads workshops promoting peace through expressive arts, while nurturing a family tradition of artistic excellence. From retrospectives celebrating her mother's work to creating transformative, meditative music, Gopika's journey embodies the profound impact of art on identity, collaboration, and healing. Discover how she is redefining art's role in building an interconnected world.  

I’ve known about Gopika most of my life, though interestingly, our connection began with her mother, the Late Prafulla Dahanukar, who opened the doors of the creative universe to me way back in the 1980s. Later, I met her charming and curious father, the late Dilip Dahanukar, who became a friend as he dived into the social media and mobile communications revolution when it emerged. The family exudes creativity, and each of them shaped and redefined their relationship with art in unique ways.

In December 2024, Gopika and her sister Gauri held a deeply moving retrospective of their mother’s art. This event was not merely an exhibition of Prafulla Dahanukar’s works but a journey through the art history that shaped her—a tapestry of stories, influences, and creations. Through the Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation, the sisters continue their mother’s legacy, encouraging artists across Maharashtra to experiment with ancient and modern artistic methods. They hold workshops in villages, introducing children and adults to the wonder of creating art from materials like leaves, mortar, and other natural elements. It is art for the senses, art that is alive and accessible.

Gopika, whose work transcends the boundaries of canvas, offers sound, image, and movement as a means of artistic expression. On the eve of the retrospective, she wrote a piece dedicated to her mother. The words are tender yet powerful, revealing her deep connection to her mother:  

Prafulla
From the blossoms that the sweetest fragrance knows,
Spills a song of vastness, in a raga that grows.
It carries a spontaneity to the moment unknown,
Settling in motion the joy that is sown.
In a whirlwind, you’re touched by its love profound,
In that instant, you're moved to a peace unbound.
She is Maa, the light on my dreaming face,
The infinite flight of notes into eternal space.
She is the song, the sky, the boundless sea,
She is the timeless rhythm of all that’s free.
In me.

At lunch the other day, I finally sat down to have a conversation with Gopika. I was riveted. Her life and art unfolded in mesmerizing tales that seamlessly flowed across time, space, and artistic disciplines. Gopika, a graduate from Mumbai University, was sent by her mother to Paris to immerse herself in art. There, in the streets, architecture, and museums of France, she not only discovered her own art expression but also found love. She married her now ex-husband, a filmmaker, and moved to Auroville, where her artistic vision evolved into a multi-sensory experience of music, canvas, and light.

Her journey as a mother has been equally inspiring. Her son Keshava is a tabla player exploring global percussion traditions, while her daughter Kamakshi is following the family legacy, currently studying art in Paris. Gopika divides her time between Mumbai and Auroville, where her creativity continues to soar alongside her partner, Nadaka. His story is as captivating as hers—he grew up in Canada, hitchhiked across Europe, and eventually found his way to Pondicherry, where he settled. Together, Nadaka and Gopika create meditative music and run a studio that serves as a sanctuary for the arts. Their work in Intermodal Expressive Arts uses creative processes to promote peacebuilding, blending music, crafts, and education.

Gopika’s narrative flows with such vivid imagery that it feels like watching a film unfold. I was captivated as she described moments of transformation in her life—especially the time when, after separating from her ex-husband, she met Nadaka and took her two young children to the United States to pursue a Master’s degree at Portland. There, her imagination collided with the world of movement and materials. She recounted how a school assignment challenged her to pick any medium to express her art. She chose paper and witnessed its ability to reflect light in motion, creating poetry in the process.

This intermingling of art and life is woven into Gopika’s entire being. Her collaboration with Nadaka extends to their musical performances, workshops, and community-building efforts in Auroville. They believe in the transformative power of art to bridge divides and unite people. Her poetry beautifully encapsulates this vision:

In the wake of love,
I wish to meet you,
For the kindness in your heart,
I wish to seek you.
In communion with the Arts,
I wish to greet you.
Beyond borders, age, and identity,
In the humanscape of our destiny,
I wish to work with you—
To build us stronger in this world,
To find our spirits rejoice in creative play,
Again and again.
In returning to the essence of togetherness,
I wish to sing for you,
For you to join me,
To long for what cares to live longer
Than us.

Through these lines, Gopika reveals herself—a woman who sees art as a bridge between souls, a means to cultivate empathy and collaboration. Her work with the Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation embodies this ethos, empowering artists to experiment and connect with their environment. She is a visionary who invites the world to reimagine creativity as a path to healing.

I am struck by the profound legacy she carries forward. Her life is a testament to the boundless possibilities of artistic expression and the enduring impact of nurturing creative communities. Like her mother before her, she is a guiding light—one that illuminates the path for others to dream, create, and thrive.