 For this he was nicknamed as "Chhoto Pankaj".In an interview on television in the early 1980s, Hemanta had mentioned that he had also received classical music training from Ustad Faiyaz Khan's student Phanibhusan Gangopadhyay, but his tutelage was cut short by the Ustad's untimely death.In 1937, Hemanta cut his first gramophone disc under the Columbia label.