Smt. Neela Bhagwat has made the most of her exposure to music, dance, theatre, mass communication and academics. Smt. Neela Bhagwat received her musical training from Pandit Sharadchandra Arolkar of the Gwalior Gharana. This 22 Years training has been completed by another guru: Pandit Jal. K. Balaporia. Over the years Neela has struggled to imbibe the very essence of this style of music. The Gwalior gharana exhorts the vocalist not only to sing out but to compose simultaneously. To imbibe the Guru’s teaching yet to assert his/her freedom of creation and to pass on the spirit to the next generation is the philosophy of the Khayal gayaki. Neela has taken this freedom as her right and her duty amd in the process, has evolved her own individuality

She believes that the Khayal, through it’s poetic content, communicates the cultural ethos of the period. It is thus that Neela has made a commendable attempt to mould the idiom of the Khayal to express comtemporary ideas and to depict the sensibilities of the modern woman. Neela in her creative experiment “Samantar” – a creative, comparative study of Carnatic and Hindustani music, along with Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam, has gone as far as treating parts, of carnatic music compositions in Khayal style – with happy results. Experimentalists and innovator par excellence, Neela has blended the beauty of poetry to diffetrant forms of music to create absolute bliss.

Neela’s spirit of exploration and innovation has taken her to Rabindra Sangeet and to the use of it’s rich, relavant, lyrical content as khayal bandishes. She has even considered the use of modern Dalit poetry for the purpose. Neela’s forays into the writer’s world stems from her command over Marathi and Sanskrit. Besides this she is a post graduate in sociology and has translated Important works on the subjects from English into Marathi. She has published a book of Marathi poems “Tihai”.