SHREYA GHOSHAL BIOGRAPHY

Biography

Shreya Ghoshal (born March 12, 1984) is an Indian singer. Best known as a playback singer in Hindi films, she also sings in other Indian languages including Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya^[2], Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.

Ghoshal's career began when she won the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contest as an adult. Her Bollywood playback singing career began with Devdas, for which she received National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer along with Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer and Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent.^[3] Since then, she has received many other awards. Ghoshal was also honored from the U.S. state of Ohio, wherein governor Ted Strickland declared June 26 as "Shreya Ghoshal Day".

Ghoshal was born to a Bengali Hindu family in Baharampur, West Bengal. She grew up in Rawatbhata, a small town near Kota, Rajasthan. Her father, Biswajeet Ghoshal, is a nuclear power plant engineer and works for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, and her mother is a literature post-graduate. At the age of four, Ghoshal accompanied her mother on the harmonium. She got training in Hindustani classical music by Maheshchandra Sharma in Kota. As a child, she won the children's special episode of the Sa Re Ga Ma (now Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) contest on Zee TV. Kalyanji, who also judged the competition, convinced her parents to move to Mumbai. She was trained by Kalyanji for 18 months and she continued her classical music training with Mukta Bhide in Mumbai.She studied at Atomic Energy Central School in Rawatbhata and Anushaktinagar, Mumbai. For graduation she enrolled at SIES College.

[edit]Career

Ghoshal caught the attention of director Sanjay Leela Bhansali when she participated in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa for a second time, this time as an adult.^[3] In 2000, Bhansali offered her the opportunity to be the voice of Paro, the lead female character of the film Devdas, that was portrayed by Aishwarya Rai.^[3] Ghoshal sang five songs in the film. Her performance won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer, as well as Filmfare's RD Burman Award for New Music Talent. She also won the National Film Award for the song "Bairi Piya".^[8]

She has received State Film Awards from Malayalam and Tamil industries and Filmfare awards in Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu industries. She debuted in South through the song "Yen Chellam" in Vasantha Balan's Tamil film Album and she got response after singing "Munbe Vaa" from Sillunu Oru Kaadhal under composer A. R. Rahman.^[9] She debuted inMalayalam through a studio album of composer Alphons Joseph and later gave voice to his song "Vida Parayukayano" from Big B.^[10] Her songs in Malayalam film Anwar became hits in Kerala and topped many charts for weeks. In 2010, Ghoshal sang for the English independent film When Harry Tries to Marry.

She has also been a judge for Star Voice Of India-Chhote Ustaad with singer Kunal Ganjawala and composer Pritam.^[11] Ghoshal was one of the three judges in X Factor (India) with Sonu Nigamand Sanjay Leela Bhansali.^[12]

[edit]Screen

• 2003: Ghoshal made an on-screen appearance in the Saaya film song "Har Taraf"
• 2011: First advertisement for jewellery store Joyalukkas in 5 languages (Hindi,^[13] Malayalam,^[14] Kannada,^[15] Tamil,^[16] Telugu^[17])
• 2012: Ghoshal appeared as the celebrity judge for Josco Indian Voice (season 1) in Malayalam channel Mazhavil Manorama along with Sreenivas and Sujatha Mohan.

MD.RAFI AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Date of Birth

24 December 1924, Kotla Sultan Singh, near Amritsar India (now Pakistan) 

Date of Death

31 July 1980, Mumbai, India 

Mini Biography

Mohammed Rafi, whose voice brought to life hundreds of melodies, was born in a village Kotla Sultan Singh near Amritsar long before India attained its independence. But music training beckoned him to Lahore where he cut his musical teeth under the hawk-like eye of Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan. He made his singing debut in the Punjabi film Gul baloch by rendering a duet with Zeenat Begum, 'Soniye Ni Heeriye Ni' composed by Shyamsunder.

Wadia Movietone was a prominent film company and it was Homi Wadia who saw the talent in Mohammed Rafi and insisted that he sing for his forthcoming film Sharbati Ankhen under the Music directorship of Feroz Nizami. The voice of Mohammed Rafi encompassed a tremendous range, which is unparalleled. The peculiar trait that separates a playback singer from a classical vocalist is not the range or ability as a singer but the voice quality. With Mohammed Rafi it was the ultimate combination that helped him reign supreme in the field of playback singing. His voice quality combined with his unsurpassed range made him stand apart from his contemporaries.

His voice suited any genre of music be it a moving ghazal like Aap Ke Pehloo Main Aakar Ro Diye, a plaintive bhajan like O Duniya Ke Rakhawale, or a wild and whacky Shanker-Jaikishan composition like Chahe Koi Mujhe Jungle Kahe. Mohammed Rafi added his delectable nuances to the melody and made it immortal. His voice had this unique feature of screen adaptability and when it merged with his intelligence as a singer it helped him to tailor his voice across an array of faces that remain entrenched in our memory books. Comedian Johnny Walker had a voice that was queerly rounded. Mohammed Rafi's take on him was phenomenal in songs like Sar Jo Tera Chakraye under S D Burman in Pyasa and Aye Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yaha from CID. Mohammed Rafi managed to sound exactly like Johnny Walker would if he sang the song himself. Rafi summoned Johnny Walker a day or two prior to the song picturization and then contributed his bit to add to the character Johnny Walker played on screen.

Honestly speaking it would not be in any way an overstatement to say that heroes like Biswajit (Pukarta chala hoon main), Bharat Bhushan (Zindagi Bhar Nahin Bhoolegi Woh Barsaat Ki Raat), Joy Mukherjee (Bade Miyan Deewane) are remembered more for the songs that were picturised on them with Rafi lending his golden voice to their average acting abilities.

Mohammed Rafi was known for his altruistic behavior, which was exhibited on several occasions. He has been known to charge just a token amount as his fees for singing songs of Music Directors who could not afford his regular charges. Many a times Mohammed Rafi has sung songs without charging a single penny to the Music Directors. A case in point is the film Aap ke Deewane with which actor Rakesh Roshan began his phase as a Producer-Director. Rafi sang the title song of the film but did not charge any money because he felt that he liked the song a lot and after all it was only a line, which he had to render. Very few singers were known to be so good at heart. This innate goodness in him came to the fore when he sang most of his songs.

In his glorious career Mohammed Rafi won the coveted Filmfare Award of best playback singer no less than six times. He was also decorated with the Padmashri by the Government of India. With the advent of Kishore Kumar as a major singing sensation Rafi sahab's career received a slight jolt in the late 60s and the early 70s but he bounced back with verve in films like Sargam, Karz, Hum Kisise Kam Nahin, Poonam and his last song under the baton of Laxmikant-Pyarelal for the film Aas Paas. He succumbed to the dreaded heart-attack on the 31st of July 1980 -ironically the man was a teetotaler and a non- smoker. He was in his mid fifties.

His funeral procession was one of the largest that the city of Mumbai has ever witnessed. The world of Music lost one of its brightest luminaries on 31st July 1980 but his melodious voice still stops music lovers in their tracks. Notable Films: Aar Paar, Baiju Bawra, Barsat Ki Raat, Dosti, Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, Hum Dono, Pyasa, Shaheed, Teesri Manzil

SONU NIGAM AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Sonu Nigam
Nickname: Golden boy of indipop 

Sonu Nigam is one of the most popular singers of Bollywood. He is a teen idol who has inspired thousands of young singers across the country. This talented singer was born in Faridabad district of Haryana on July 30th, 1973. He did his schooling from J.D. Tytler School in Delhi. Thereafter he moved to Bombay to pursue his dream of making a career in music. Given here is a short biography of Sonu Nigam.

Sonu Nigam's father Agam Kumar is a renowned singer who performed on many stage shows in his prime. Sonu Nigam used to accompany his father to his shows and once gave a moving performance at the tender age of three. He sang the superhit song of Mohammed Rafi "Kya Hua Tera Wada" of the movie "Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahi". It was appreciated by all and Sonu Nigam tasted fame. He was encouraged to hone his singing though many claimed he was just a Rafi clone.

He got his first break to sing for the movie Janum in the year 1990. Though the film flopped, he got noticed by the famous Gulshan Kumar. He offered Sonu to sing in the film Bewafa Sanam. The song "Accha Sila Diya" became that year's biggest hit. He shot to fame and was noticed by one and all. Sonu Nigam was poured with offers thereafter and got another great opportunity to make his mark in the form of television host for the musical talent show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.

In the year 1997, he got his biggest hit with the film "Border". His song "Sandese Aate Hain" was touted as the biggest hit of that year and he won the Zee Cine award for the song. He proved critics wrong who said he was a Rafi clone with the song "Yeh Dil" from the film "Pardes". With more and more offers pouring in and films like Taal, Pukar and Saathiya, he carved a niche for himself. Sonu Nigam has also released many pop albums namely Deewana, Jaan, Yaad, Mausam and Chanda Ki Doli, which have become major hits. He also tried his hand at acting and has done films like Jaani Dushman, Love in Nepal and Kash Aap Hamare Hote.

Sonu Nigam has recently started his own radio show on Radio City 91 FM which is known as Life Ki Dhun. He has interviewed many eminent personalities of the film industry. One can also tune into this show on the Internet. His recent soundtracks of the movies Kal Ho Na Ho and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna are chart toppers and have made him a favorite among the younger generation. He plans to release a semi-classical album and an English album in the near future. Sonu Nigam has truly made an indelible mark in the industry and continues to add the melody in life with his flawless voice.

Asha Bhosle biography

Asha Bhosle was born in the small hamlet of Goar in Sangli, Bombay Presidency (now in Maharashtra), into the musical family of Master Deenanath Mangeshkar, who belongs to Gomantak Maratha Samaj. Her father was a theater actor and classical singer. When she was nine years old, her father died. The family moved from Pune to Kolhapur and then to Mumbai. She and her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar began singing and acting in films to support their family. She sang her first film song '"Chala Chala Nav Bala" for the Marathi film Majha Bal (1943). The music for the film was composed by Datta Davjekar. She made her Hindi film debut when she sang the song "Saawan Aaya" for Hansraj Behl's Chunariya (1948).^[15] Her first solo Hindi film song was for the movieRaat Ki Raani (1949).

At the age of 16, she eloped with 31-year-old Ganpatrao Bhosle, marrying him against her family's wishes. Ganpatrao was Lata's personal secretary. The marriage failed miserably. Her husband and in-laws mistreated her. After a few years of marriage, Asha was turned out (around 1960) by a suspicious Ganpatrao^[16] and she went to her maternal home with two children and pregnant with her third child. She continued to sing in films to earn money.

At that time, prominent playback singers like Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and Lata Mangeshkar dominated the singing for the female lead and the big films. Asha used to get the assignments they refused: singing for the bad girls and vamps, or songs in the second-grade movies. In the 1950s, she sang more songs than most playback singers in Bollywood (not counting Lata). Most of these were in low budget B or C-grade films. Her earliest songs were composed by A R Qureshi, Sajjad Hussain and Ghulam Mohammed, and most of these songs failed to do well.^[15] Singing inSangdil (1952), composed by Sajjad Hussain, she got reasonable recognition. Consequently, film director Bimal Roy gave her a chance to sing in Parineeta (1953). Raj Kapoor signed her to sing "Nanhe Munne Bachche" with Mohammed Rafi in Boot Polish (1954), which gained popularity.

O. P. Nayyar gave Asha a break in C.I.D. (1956). She first achieved success in B. R. Chopra's Naya Daur (1957), composed by him. Her duets with Rafi like "Maang Ke Saath Tumhara", "Saathi Haath Badhana" and "Uden Jab Jab Zulfein Teri", penned by Sahir Ludhianvi, earned her recognition. It was the first time she sang all the songs for a film's leading actress. Chopra approached her for several of his later productions, including Gumrah (1963), Waqt (1965), Hamraaz (1965), Aadmi Aur Insaan (1966) and Dhund (1973). Nayyar's future collaboration with Bhosle also resulted in success. Gradually, she established her status and received the patronage of such composers as Sachin Dev Burman and Ravi. Bhosle and Nayyar had a professional and personal parting of ways in the 1970s.

In 1966, Bhosle's performances in the duets from one of music director R.D. Burman's first soundtracks, for the movie Teesri Manzil, won popular acclaim. Reportdly, when she first heard the dance number "Aaja Aaja", she felt she would not be able to sing this westernised tune. While Burman offered to change the music, she refused, taking it as a challenge. She completed the song after ten days of rehearsals, and "Aaja Aaja", along with such other songs as "O Haseena Zulfonwali" and "O Mere Sona Re" (all three duets with Rafi), became successful. Shammi Kapoor, the film's leading actor, was once quoted as saying– "If I did not have Mohammad Rafi to sing for me, I would have got Asha Bhosle to do the job". Bhosle's collaboration with Burman resulted in numerous hits and a marriage. During the 1960-70s, she was the voice of Bollywood's actress and dancer, Helen, on whom "O Haseena Zulfon Wali" was picturised. It is said that Helen would attend her recording sessions so that she could understand the song better and plan dance steps accordingly.^[17] Some of their other popular numbers include "Piya Tu Ab To Aaja" (Caravan) and "Yeh Mera Dil" (Don), among others.

By the 1980s, Bhosle, although highly regarded^{[by whom?]} for her abilities and versatility, had sometimes been stereotyped^{[by whom?]} as a "cabaret singer" and a "pop crooner". In 1981 she attempted a different genre by singing several ghazals for the Rekha-starrer Umrao Jaan, including "Dil Cheez Kya Hai", "In Aankhon Ki Masti Ke", "Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Doston" and "Justaju Jiski Thi". The film's music director Khayyam, had lowered her pitch by half a note. Bhosle herself expressed surprise that she could sing so differently. The ghazals won her the first National Film Award of her career. A few years later, she won another National Award for the song "Mera Kuchh Saamaan" from Ijaazat (1987).

In 1995, 62-year-old Bhosle sang for actress Urmila Matondkar in the movie Rangeela. The soundtrack featured songs like "Tanha Tanha" and "Rangeela Re" sung by her, and composed by music director A. R. Rahman, who would go on to record several songs with her. During the 2000s, several of Bhosle's numbers became chartbusters, including "Radha Kaise Na Jale" from Lagaan(2001), "Kambakht Ishq" from Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya (2001), "Yeh Lamha" from Filhaal (2002), "Lucky Lips" from Lucky (2005). In October 2004, The Very Best of Asha Bhosle, The Queen of Bollywood, a compilation album of songs recorded by Bhosle for albums and Bollywood films that were released between 1966 and 2003, was released.

Lata Mangeshkar biography

Nickname

The Nightingale of Bollywood 

Mini Biography

Lata Mangeshkar was born in Indore on September 8, 1929, and became, quite simply, the most popular playback singer in Bollywood's history. She has sung for over 50 years for actresses from Nargis to Preity Zinta, as well as having recorded albums of all kinds (ghazals, pop, etc). Until the 1991 edition, when her entry disappeared, the Guinness Book of World Records listed her as the most-recorded artist in the world with not less than 30,000 solo, duet,and chorus-backed songs recorded in 20 Indian languages between 1948 and 1987. Today that number might have reached 40,000!

She was born the daughter of Dinanath Mangeshkar, the owner of a theater company and a reputed classical singer in his own right. He started giving Lata singing lessons from the age of five, and she also studied with renowned singers Aman Ali Khan Sahib and Amanat Khan. Even at a young age she displayed a God-given musical gift and could master vocal exercises the first time.

Ironically, for someone of her stature, she made her entry into Bollywood at the wrong time - around the 1940s, when bass singers with heavily nasal voices, such as Noor Jehan and Shamshad Begum were in style. She was rejected from many projects because it was believed that her voice was too high-pitched and thin. The circumstances of her entry into the industry were no less inauspicious - her father died in 1942, the responsibility of earning income to support her family fell upon her, and between 1942 and 1948 she acted in as many as eight films in Hindi and Marathi to take care of economic hardships. She made her debut as a playback singer in the Marathi film Kiti Hasaal (1942) but, ironically, the song was edited out!

However, in 1948, she got her big break with Ghulam Haider in the film Majboor (1948), and 1949 saw the release of four of her films: Mahal(1949), Dulari (1949), Barsaat (1949), and Andaz (1949); all four of them became runaway hits, with their songs reaching to heights of what was until then unseen popularity. Her unusually high-pitched singing rendered the trend of heavily nasal voices of the day totally obsolete and, within a year, she had changed the face of playback singing forever. The only two lower-pitched singers to survive her treble onslaught to a certain extent were Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum.

Her singing style was initially reminiscent of Noor Jehan, but she soon overcame that and evolved her own distinctive style. Her sister, Asha Bhosle, too, came up in the late 1950s and the two of them were the queens of Indian playback singing right through to the 1990s. Her voice had a special versatile quality, which meant that finally music composers could stretch their creative experiments to the fullest. Although all her songs were immediate hits under any composer, it was the composers C. Ramchandra and Madan Mohan who made her sound her sweetest and challenged her voice like no other music director.

The 1960s and 1970s saw her go from strength to strength, even as there were accusations that she was monopolizing the playback-singing industry. However, in the 1980s, she cut down her workload to concentrate on her shows abroad. Today, Lata sings infrequently despite a sudden resurgence in her popularity, but even today some of Hindi Cinema's biggest hits, including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), and Veer-Zaara (2004) feature her legendary voice.

No matter which female playback singer breaks through in any generation, she cannot replace the timeless voice of Lata Mangeshkar. She is an icon beyond icons....