How Singer & Writer Isheeta Ganguly Bridges The Arts, Philanthropy, & Being Desi

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

‘Indianness’

For Isheeta Ganguly, identity is a bridge between the spaces she inhabits. The multidisciplinary artist, philanthropist, and public health professional describes herself as a “reverse repatriate desi“— she was born in Kolkata, raised in the United States, and ultimately drawn back to India, where she now lives and works.

Speaking with India Currents at the 2026 Indiaspora Forum in Bengaluru earlier this year, Ganguly reflected on belonging, creativity, and the unusual intersections between art, health, and social change that define her life’s work.

Her story moves fluidly across continents, reflecting the experiences of diasporic Indians who live and travel between many worlds. Ganguly’s parents immigrated to New York in the early 1970s, and although she was raised entirely in the US, a work opportunity in India in the mid-2000s changed the trajectory of her life. There, she met her husband and decided to stay. Now based in Mumbai with her family, raising two sons, Ganguly’s work as a singer, playwright and author takes her everywhere – from collaborating in multi-cultural initiatives at the Lincoln Center in New York to performances at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai.

That duality, explained Ganguly, gives her a layered understanding of what it means to be “desi” — whether in India or abroad.

“I relate to being a desi from both perspectives—of being an Indian American, but also an Indian American who’s now living in India.”

The desi label

Yet what fascinated her most during conversations at the Indiaspora panel on desis without borders, was discovering how differently the term resonates across the global diaspora, where Indian-origin communities do not always identify strongly with the ‘desi’ label.

“Many people from Fiji, Australia, Mauritius, and the Netherlands don’t as easily identify with the notion of ‘desi,’ which I actually thought was a very global phenomenon,” observed Ganguly.

Yet, a sense of “Indianness” remains unmistakable in shared cultural touchstones, she adds. “Indianness” is something that’s powerfully evoked in all these global communities… from our love of cricket, Bollywood, music, and food habits.” For Ganguly, those connections reveal how culture unmistakably survives migration, distance, and reinvention.

A creative arc

That same exploration of identity and belonging runs through her creative work. Ganguly has released nine albums and earned international recognition for a trilogy of musical theater productions — Three Women, Sundays with Chitra & Chaitali, and Shakuntala Awaits.

Her work blends feminism, mythology, history, and pop culture, reimagining classic 19th-century Indian heroines through a modern dramatic-comedic lens. Productions from the trilogy have traveled across India, Southeast Asia, and North America, with Shakuntala Awaits even enjoying an off-Broadway run at New York’s HERE Theater.

At the center of her current artistic journey is Three Women, soon to be reborn as a graphic novel published by Penguin Random House in May 2026. The project revisits the controversial relationship between Rabindranath Tagore and his sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi, through a contemporary feminist perspective.

“My first play, Three Women, is one that’s being adapted into a graphic novel by Penguin Random House coming out this May for Tagore’s birth anniversary, and we are also developing that work into a film in partnership with Tulsi Entertainment,” she adds.

Tagore and Kadambari

Ganguly traces her fascination with Kadambari Devi back to her childhood, when she was a student of Rabindra Sangeet and became captivated by the enigmatic woman who shaped Tagore’s emotional and creative life. Kadambari, she explains, was entrusted with caring for the young Tagore when he was lonely and isolated.

“From my childhood of learning Rabindra Sangeet, I was very compelled by Rabindranath’s relationship with his sister-in-law, Kadambari. She was this enigmatic force in his life. He grew up sort of lonely and isolated… and his sister-in-law, Kadambari, was told to look after him. They were childhood playmates. Soon in their adolescence, it is said they both developed a much deeper spiritual connection and likely a romantic relationship, which evolved from Kadambari mentoring Rabindranath Tagore.”

According to Ganguly, Kadambari’s influence was inseparable from Tagore’s artistic awakening. Her tragic suicide at the age of 27, following Tagore’s marriage to Mrinalini Devi, cast a shadow over the poet for the rest of his life.

“That mentorship led to some of his greatest creations. Tagore remained melancholic about her passing until his last days… My own belief as a creator who’s innovated on a lot of Tagore’s work is that without Kadambari Devi, we would have never had Rabindranath Tagore.”

A cosmopolitan ghost

But rather than retelling the story as historical tragedy alone, Ganguly reshapes it with startling originality. In Three Women, Kadambari returns as a ghost – a time-traveling force of nature. Ganguly describes her as “Sex and the City-esque,” cocktail in hand and armed with sharp self-awareness. The effervescent Kadambari guides two of Tagore’s fictional heroines, Charu and Bimala, toward futures more liberated than her own. Through humor and fantasy, Ganguly transforms grief into a meditation on female agency, creativity, and self-realization.

“I have brought Kadambari back to the modern day as a time-traveling, ‘Sex and the City’-esque ghost carrying a cosmopolitan in her right hand who is guiding two of Tagore’s fictional characters, Charu and Bimala, to better outcomes than herself. She says, ‘Look at me… I popped it because I couldn’t manage the stresses of the Tagore household… I am guiding you… so that you can realize your potential in the 21st century.'”

Finding their voices

“It’s a dramatic comedy… the play speaks to the universal love of humanity and women finding themselves through their pursuit of passion. The 19th-century women in Tagore’s world were all brilliantly educated… but they had no mode of expression. Kadambari, the ghost, whisks them away and brings them to the modern day.”

The result is both playful and deeply political. The women of Tagore’s era, noted Ganguly, were intellectually vibrant but had few opportunities to express themselves meaningfully. Her modern Kadambari refuses to let them remain trapped in silence. Instead, she escorts them into the 21st century, urging them to claim the ambitions she herself could not fulfill.

A graphic novel adaptation

The enduring popularity of the stage production eventually caught the attention of Penguin Random House, which approached Ganguly about adapting it into a graphic novel. The new edition, illustrated by Kolkata-based artist Chiranjit Sarkar, will also include an audio experience, creating what Ganguly describes as a “multi-sensory” retelling.

“Penguin actually approached me because of the popularity of the play. It’s been running for 11 years all over India and Southeast Asia, and we had a US tour as well. Penguin said they want to create a graphic illustration out of this play…and they’re doing an audio version as well, so people can have a multi-sensory experience. It’s been done by a very talented illustrator in Kolkata named Chiranjit Sarkar.”

An artist & philanthropist

Despite her success in theater and philanthropy, Ganguly insists that musical artistry remains the center of her identity. “I am always an artist first,” she says. Singing since the age of 15, she became known in New York’s cultural circles as a vocalist long before she emerged as a playwright and director. “I’m known most in New York, I think, as a singer,” she explains. “I released about eight albums, which have been acclaimed internationally and also became a playwright-director during that journey.”

Her creative endeavors, however, have never been separate from her commitment to social impact. Those experiences were shaped early through work with vulnerable children in Kolkata, which convinced her that gender equity is central to India’s future.

“I have a background in public health,” explains Ganguly. “After my undergraduate in biomedical ethics at Brown, I did a master’s in public health at Columbia and worked in management consulting in healthcare for many years. That passion to work with street children first in Kolkata… really opened my eyes to the gender equity gap in India. I worked with kids who were trafficked, abandoned, neglected, and abused.”

Today, Ganguly serves on the board of The Antara Foundation, which focuses on maternal and infant health. The organization works to reduce high-risk maternal and infant mortality by supporting frontline healthcare workers and improving care during the critical 1,000-day period spanning pregnancy through a child’s second birthday.

“I realized that the gender gap needed to be bridged in order for India to achieve its potential. My work with the Antara Foundation is in the maternal-child health space. We work to reduce high-risk maternal and infant deaths, looking at the 1,000-day cycle from pregnancy to the baby’s age of two. We look at points of connection for health workers to get better training and use artificial intelligence tools to detect high-risk cases sooner.”

“I work in public health and philanthropy, bridging the impact of the performing arts on health and development in India,“ Ganguly explains.

What is a ‘philanthropreneur?‘

For her children, however, all these overlapping roles have inspired a more amusing label. They jokingly call her a “philanthropreneur” — part philanthropist, part entrepreneur.

“My kids are always teasing me about it; they’re like, ‘What is a philanthropreneur?”

Ganguly embraces the term because it captures the essence of her work, “essentially innovation in public health and philanthropy.” She believes that taking something traditional and reinventing it for the modern world defines much of the Indian American experience itself.

She says she is inspired by Indian American ingenuity — “our ability to take something classic and re-imagine it in new forms, whether it’s tech, academia, the arts, or healthcare.”

For an artist with roots in India and the US who works in art, culture, theater, and healthcare, Ganguly is motivated by what she calls the ‘incredible cohesiveness of the Indian diaspora.’

“While I spend a lot of time in Mumbai, I travel very frequently back to New York, which is my home city. I find as an Indian American that the enthusiasm and passion the Indian diaspora community has for India is infectious, and that is so inspiring toward innovation as an artist and a philanthropist.”

Three Women

Isheeta Ganguly’s graphic novel Three Women blends literature, history, and contemporary insight, bringing Tagore’s heroines to life in a bold and visually engaging new form.

When the lively and sharp-tongued ghost of Kadambari Devi, Rabindranath Tagore’s mysterious sister-in-law, travels through time, she meets Charu and Bimala, two unforgettable women from Tagore’s fiction. Intelligent, curious, and deeply conflicted, both women struggle to balance love, ambition, and duty in a rapidly changing world.

Three Women celebrates the timeless strength of Tagore’s women and their search for meaning, freedom, and passion. As they question, challenge, and learn from one another, they uncover a powerful truth: although the world has changed from the 19th century to the 21st, women’s struggles for independence, desire, and purpose remain much the same.

Three Women, the graphic novel, will be released on May 30.
Imprint: Vintage Books
Published: May/2026
ISBN: 9780143482376 (Paperback)
Length : 80 Pages
MRP : ₹299.00

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