Shobha Gurtu City, performing alongside musical greats and, Pt. Birju Maharaj. Her album of gazal "Tarz" along with Mehdi Hassan was popular. She often lend her voice the collaborative jazz albums, of her son Trilok Gurtu. In 2000, she featured in the Jana Gana Mana Video, which was released to mark the 50th year of the Indian Republic, where she sang the Indian National Anthem, "Jana Gana Mana", along with other leading classical singers and musicians of India. In 1987, she received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, and later awarded the "Lata Mangeshkar Puraskar", "Shahu Maharaj Puraskar" and the "Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar".
Amit Sharma (director) left the tutorship of Sarkar, and in 2004 he set up his own company, Chrome Pictures, with Aleya Sen and Hemant Bhandari. Later that year, he was offered an assistant role on Sarkar's film, "Parineeta", which he turned down because it clashed with his planned wedding to Sen. Between 2005 and 2015, Sharma directed over 900 advertisements, including those for Google, Coca-Cola and Amazon. In 2011, he directed an advert entitled 'The Silent National Anthem' featured deaf and mute 'singing' the Jana Gana Mana through sign language, and won a silver award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.