Chitra Singh

All the Hindi ghazals lovers must have heard of famous Ghazal singer Chitra Singh. Married to Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh, Chitra singh is a renowned Indian Urdu/Hindi ghazals singer. Together they have given wonderful duets and are considered as legends in modern ghazals singing. Born in a Bengali family, Chitra Singh never had any formal music training. Her family had music culture and she first learned the ropes by listening to others. Chitra Singh started her career in Mumbai by singing advertisement jingles for various products.

The meeting of these two famous singers took place during 1960s in Mumbai only when both Jagjit and Chitra singh were trying to make career in singing. They both sung jingles together. However, their struggle paid off when they launched top album, “The Unforgettables”. This album literally revolutionized Indian ghazals world. They sung in public and album became a huge hit. Interestingly, this album also changed the way ghazals were used to be sung. During those days, ghazals were performed in Mehfils.

Since then, it became an unforgettable journey for both of them. They released various ghazals albums and devotional albums as well. They even composed songs for Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali albums. Their Bengali and Punjabi albums were huge hits. Chitra singh stopped singing after the unfortunate demise of her young son. Some of her famous songs include “Yeh Tera Ghar, Yeh Mera Ghar”, “Tum Aao To Sahi”, “Woh Nahin Milta Mujhe”, “Saare Badan Ka Khoon”, and “Mitti Da Bawa”.

Some of her Albums include,

A Milestone (1976), The Unforgettables (1978), Gold Disc (1979), Ae mere dil (1980), Live in concert with Jagjit Chitra Singh, Live at Wembley, Desires, Chirag, The Latest (1982), Ecstasies (1984), A Sound Affair (1985) etc.

 

Shreya Ghoshal

Born on March 12, 1984 in Rawatbhata, Rajasthan, Shreya Ghoshal has made rapid strides in Hindi playback singing. She has made a name for herself in last few years. Know for her melodious voice and classical talent, Shreya has sung for almost every top banner of the Hindi film industry. She is also active in regional films as well and has managed to make millions of fans. The regional languages she has lent her voice to include, Marathi, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi and Tamil.

Shreya showed glimpses of her talent from an early age only. She was musically inclined since the tender age of four. She received her earlier training in Hindustani classical music from Maheshchandra Sharma. Later on she won the children’s special episode of the Sa Re Ga Ma contest on Zee TV and that victory made her family move its base to Mumbai. She trained with famous composer Kalyanji who was highly impressed with her talent.

Her first major came with the hit movie Devdas where she was given the voice of Paro. That movie was her key to stardom and since then she has never looked back. That movie won her the Filmfare Award for best singer as well as the R D Burman award, given to upcoming talents in music. In her career, Shreya Ghoshal has sung for all the top music composers including Anu Malik, Himesh Reshammiya, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Pritam, Vishal-Shekhar, Hamsalekha, Mano Murthy, Gurukiran, Ilayaraja and maestro A. R. Rahman. She has also acted as a judge in the singing show Amul Star Voice Of India Chhote Ustaad.

Shreya has won no less than three national awards and four Filmfare awards. May she keep mesmerizing us with her wonderful voice.

 

Sunidhi Chauhan

Sunidhi Chauhan was born on August 14, 1983. A successful playback singer, she has earned huge accolades over the years. Sunidhi is hugely talented and has sung more than 2000 songs. Her talent was first discovered when she was a child. She started to sing at an early age of four and a televised singing contest named ‘Meri Awaz Suno’ got her national recognition. She debuted with Hindi film Shastra but what got her fame and appreciation was Ram Gopal Verma’s film, Mast, in which she sang the hit song, Ruki Ruki Si Zindagi. Since then, it has been a truly remarkable journey for Sunidhi. She has worked with almost all the top musicians and her songs have often proved to be chartbusters. She has been nominated for no less than twelve Filmfare Awards out of which she has won it thrice. Other awards won by her are, Star Screen Awards, IIFA Awards and Zee Cine Award.

Sunidhi Chauhan is a very versatile singer as can be witnessed from her songs belonging to diverse genres. She can sing in any genre. She is proficient in genres as diverse as rock, pop, classical, folk and semi-classical. Last year was especially good for her as she gave numerous hits like Chhaliya, Rock Mahi, Lucky Boy, Desi Girl (Dostana), Dance Pe Chance (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi), and Race Saanson Ki (Race). Top notch music composers like A. R. Rahman, Anu Malik, Jatin Lalit, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Pritam Chakraborty, Nadeem-Shravan, Vishal-Shekhar, Himesh Reshammiya etc have worked with her and have given wonderful hits. Some of her popular songs are, Ruki Ruki, Mehboob Mere, Dhoom Machale, Kaisi Paheli, Deedar De, Beedi, Soniye, Aashiqui Main, Aaja Nachle, Sajnaji Vari Vari, Dance Pe Chance etc to name a few.

 

Kunal Ganjawala

In recent years, many new talented singers have emerged on the anvil.  Some of them have kept conquering new heights and have left no stone unturned in imporving their class. One such singer is Kunal Ganjawala who has grown by leaps and bounds in Hindi music industry. He has also earned accolades in Marathi and Kannada film industry. His first major hit was ‘Bheegey Hont’ from the film Murder and that was also his big bang arrival in bollywood. That song won him 2005 Zee Cine Award for Best Playback Singer (male). Apart from that he has sung in several other films including Saawariya whose songs earned critic approval.

Apart from that he has been a participant on several music shows on TVs in different capacities. First he participated in Sa Re Ga Ma, an Indian singing talent competition on Zee TV and then acted as a judge on Amul Star Voice of India with Shreya Ghosal and Pritam as co-judges. Kunal’s talent lies in his diverse singing capabilities. He is not only a good singer but also a wonderful performer.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, he started to show his singing talent in school. He performed in college festivals and that’s how began his journey. He is ammried to a fellow singer Gayatri Iyer and they have sung together some times. His talent has truly been explored in other languages like Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi and Telugu. His famous songs include, ‘Humdum suniyo re’, ‘Kaal Dhamaal’, ‘Dil Na Diya’, ‘Bheegey Hont’, ‘Yaar Ko Maine’, ‘Kyaa Kool Hai Hum’, ‘channa-ve-ghar aa jaa ve’, ‘Chodo na Mujhe’, ‘Dil Keh Raha Hai’ and ‘Salaam-E-Ishq’ etc.

 

Shaan

Shaan is a popular name in Indian music industry. His songs have proved to be huge hits and he commands a great fan following. Shaan’s real name is Shantanu Mukherjee and he was born on September 30, 1972 at a place called Khandwa. Shaan belonged to a family of musicians as father late Manas Mukherjee was a music director and his sister Sagarika was quite popular in Indipop genre. He is also an accomplished vocalist and bass player. Shaan first began his career as ad jingles singer. Soon after, he moved to the next level of singing remixes and cover versions.

His first remix album named Q-funk was a major milestone for him. But his real moment of fame with the song ‘Tanha Dil’ in year 2000. Song proved to be a major hit and it brought him popularity and recognition. He also made his entry in Hindi film industry. His second album called ‘Aksar’ was also successful. The interesting part of the album was presence of international artists like Mel C, Blue and Samira Said.  Shaan also made a foray into TV shows and gained huge popularity. He was a host for popular show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa from 2000–2006 and also for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs. Currently, Shaan is the host for another popular reality show called Star Voice of India.

He has sung in various movies and gave us huge hits. His hit songs include, Musu Musu, Chand Sifarish, Jab se tere naina, Take me to your heart, Dus bahane, Nikkama, Socha Nahi Tha, Koi kahe kehta rahe and many others. Shaan has won several awards including Filmfare Best Male Playback Award, Zee Cine Award Best Playback Singer, MTV Asia Music Awards etc.

 

Indian Fim Music- New Millenium

The new millennium saw a complete sea change in indian movie music scenario. New genres of songs got developed and they are quite popular. These new genres have their own loyal fan following. The new genres were fusion, pop music, remixes and hip-hop to name a few. Though the seeds of these genres were planted in 90s itself yet they bloomed completely in new millennium. Pop music was the new genre in 90s which caught the fancy of new generation of music afficianados who were looking for new changes. Some of the renowned singers in pop music genre who started this trend were Baba Sehgal, Alisha Chinai, Biddu, Mehnaz, Sweta Shetty amongst others. ‘Made in India’ was the first pop album blockbuster in India. It broke all previous records in album sales. Alisha Chinai became the new pop queen in India. New music directors and singers kept coming with new albums and public took them readily. Baba Sehgal with his unique mix of hindi and English also became popular with his album ‘Thanda Thanda Pani’.

This success of new genre gave rise to the culture of Punjabi and Bhangra songs. Daler Mehndi was the Bhangra king in 90s. Every song of his was a blockbuster. His songs were a beautiful mix of Bhangra and pop. This surely made Bhangra a pan India phenomenon. The success of new genres resulted in the not so well defined “filmi sangeet” because filmi sangeet had also started to incorporate new genres of music. This new phenomenon of alternative music coupled with new wave of India cinema has resulted in an interesting business and creative milieu.

 

Indian Film Music-90s

The success of “Maine Pyar Kia” and “Qyamat se Qyamat tak” gave way to chain of melodious music. Unlike a relatively barren 80s, 90s produced mind boggling numbers. In fact, many movies were advertised as musicals which proved very crucial in those movies earning good revenues. Movies like Saajan, Sadak, Dil hai ki Maanta Nahi, Dil wale dulhaniya le jayenge, Raja Hindustani had soothing music and this gave a great boost to the sagging Indian music industry.

The other effect of these musical hits was big money started pouring into acquiring musical rights. Music rights of movies like ‘Taal’, ’kuch kuch hota hai’ were sold for astonishing sum. This became a winning formula for movie production houses. Having good music sold for substantial amount resulted into earning good revenues even before the release of the movie.

New millennium further continued this tradition. Musical blockbusters kept hitting the theaters and music was as important to a film as like any other thing. This also gave opportunities to many new musical talents and music directors. A R Rehman was the biggest musical sensation in 90s. He kept giving one hit after another. He is also credited to work with many international names and brought glory and worldwide recognition to Indian music. Singers like Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Abhijit, Shaan. Sunidhi Chauhan also made their mark in musical world.

 

Indian Film Music-Middle Period

As Indian music entered into 60’s and 70’s, the standard of music definitely improved because of new recording techniques and technological advancement in other sound systems. Quite a stable era, Indian music kept flourishing with some immortal songs. Singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kishor Kumar, Mohammad Rafi etc were firmly established and they kept producing everlasting songs. Though few new music composers like R D Burman, Kalyanji Anandji and Laxmikant-Pyarelal arrived that further boosted the qualitative competition in the Indian film industry.   These new arrivals resulted into better film music.

 

With the arrival of 80’s and 90’s, industry witnessed new changes. India saw debut of television of India. Initially there was one channel called Doordarshan which was government owned. Doordarshan affected Indian music industry in both ways. Like earlier people used to listen to film songs through radio. But doordarshan gave these songs a visual medium to reach amongst the masses. Now people could listen to songs as well as see the visual effects. Now Indian film songs had more mass appeal. But at the same time, because of television the rush for theaters line reduced a bit. It affected the movies’ revenue to a certain extent.

 

In 80’s Indian film songs had lost little bit of sheen. But as 90’s approached movies like “Maine Pyar Kia” and “Qyamat se Qyamat tak” were major hits and so were their songs. Songs from these movies gave a new lease of life to Indian film industry.

 

Indian Film Music-Initial Period

During the initial period of Indian cinema the major film centers were Bombay (or Mumbai), Calcutta (or Kolkata), and Madras (or Chennai).  Bombay was the foremost amongst them because of its financial muscle and national distribution capacity whereas Calcutta and Madras were well-known for their regional films. Through out the 30s, Indian movie industry worked that way. With the arrival of 1940s and 50s things started changing a bit. Music was considered the soul of the Indian films. They had to be there. Another change was many independent producers started making their mark in Bollywood. At the same time, era of playback singing started knocking doors. Every movie was working so some formula which guided certain number of songs in movie depending upon the genre of the movies. Many new musicians, music directors and singers began making their mark.

 

Unlike earlier time where actors and actresses themselves had to sing, now they had the option of lip-syncing. Playback singers’ started singing songs for actors. Notable playback singers who managed to make a mark in that era are K L Sehgal, Hemant Kumar, Talat mehmood, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad begum, Begum Akhtar and Asha Bhosle.  Prominent music directors are C. Ramchandra, Naushad, Shankar – Jaikishan, S. D. Burman, and Madan Mohan. These singers and music directors started a new trend in film industry and their songs and music is still popular amongst masses. They are credited to produce soulful music which still lingers on in our memory.

 

Indian Film Music-Initial Period

The purists have often questioned the artistic quality of the Indian film songs. Though, we must accept they are immensely popular. Wherever we go in India we can hear these popular movies songs coming from loudspeakers in every function. Its biggest strength lies in the fact that it appeals to every genre and every age group.

 

 It all had started in 1930’s. Indian’s first speaking movie was “Alam ara” which conincidently also heralded the arrival of Indian film songs. A new musical genre had started to take place. Indian film songs started being major parts of movies right from the beginning of indian motion pictures. Even in first decade of Indian movies; 1930-40, every movie produced in that time frame had almost 10 songs on an average. In that duration regional movies were also released, mainly in Bengali and Tamil which had songs as well.

 

The famous music directors of that era were Anil Biswas, Pankaj Mullick, Keshavrao Bhole to name a few. These people can be called as trendsetters. The unique thing was the concept of playback singing was not there during the initial period of Indian cinema. The actors and actresses of that period sang their own songs. In fact, most of the actors like Baburao Pendharkar and Bal Gandharva etc were chosen because of their singing talents.