Shreya Ghoshal

 Shreya Ghoshal

Shreya Ghoshal (শ্রেয়া ঘোষাল, born 12 March 1984) is an Indian playback singer various Indian films. She has performed in various languages including Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam, Nepali, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya and Punjabi. She has received several awards and nominations, including four National Film Awards for best playback singer, three State Film Awards, five Filmfare Awards (four for best playback singer), and eight Filmfare Awards South. She has established herself as a leading female playback singer in Indian cinema.

Ghoshal's career began when she won the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contest. Her Bollywood playback singing career began with Devdas, for which she received a National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer, a Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer, and a Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent.^[1] Since then, she has received many other awards. Ghoshal was also honored from the U.S. state of Ohio, wherein governor Ted Strickland declared 26 June as "Shreya Ghoshal Day^[2]".^[3] She was also featured in Forbes’ list of the top 100 celebrities of India.^[4][5] She was declared the most popular artist on Saavn (an Indian music streaming service) in 2013, followed by Arijit Singh, A. R. Rahman, Atif Aslam, and Mohit Chauhan.^[6][7] Her first Kannada song is Krishna nee begane baro from the movie Pyaris pranaya. Now she is the most wanted female singer in Karnataka.

Early life and background

 

 

 

 

 

Shreya was born on 12th March 1984 to a Bengali family in Baharampur, Dist: Murshidabad, West Bengal. Thereafter, she spent the next three months in her birthplace in West Bengal.^[8] She grew up in Rawatbhata, a small town near Kota, Rajasthan, where her father was transferred. Her father, Bishwajit Ghoshal is an electrical engineer and works for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, and her mother, Sarmistha Ghoshal, is a literature post-graduate.^[9] She also has a brother named Soumyadeep Ghoshal, who is seven years her junior.^[10] Regarding her family, she said in an interview to the The Hindu, "There is no separate entity. We are one. We function as a team."^[11]

Ghoshal lived at Rawatbhata for thirteen years and completed her schooling up to eighth grade at the Atomic Energy Central School, Rawatbhata.^[8] In 1997, when her father was transferred to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Ghoshal relocated to Mumbai with her family.^[12] In Mumbai, she studied at the Atomic Energy Central School in Anushakti Nagar. She joined the Atomic Energy Junior College to study science. This field held little appeal for her, however, as her musical career in Bollywood had already begun. So, she withdrew from the junior college and enrolled at the SIES College at Sion in Mumbai, where she took up arts with English as her major.^[8][9]

In Rawatbhata, Ghoshal experienced the existence of several cultural programmes and social assemblages, which facilitated the beginning of her musical style. A cultural inclination of her parents and the luck of having a mother as a singer accelerated her musical journey. Her mother sang during rehearsals and she used to repeat by buzzing the same songs with infantile pronunciation. Ghoshal's mother turned out to be her first teacher when, at the age of four, she accompanied her on the harmonium and started practicing songs, chiefly Bengali songs. Her first stage performance was made at their club's annual function. When she turned six, she started her lessons in Hindustani classical music. She was trained in Hindustani classical music by Rakesh Sharma of Kota, Shri Jayawardhan Bhatnagar, the music teacher of her school, and finally from Mahesh Chandra Sharma of Kota. Her introduction to Hindi film songs and Rajasthani folk was made by Shri Jayawardhan Bhatnagar.^[8]

In 1995, Ghoshal became the winner of the All India Light Vocal Music Competition in New Delhi, which was organised by the Sangam Kala Group, in the Light Vocal group at a sub-junior level. She made her first on-screen appearance Awaz Nayi Andaz Wohi, which was aired on the channel EL TV. Kalyanji–Anandji and Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra served as the judges. She made her first studio recording with the show in 1996. As a child, she won the 75th Children's Special episode of the Sa Re Ga Ma (now Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) contest on Zee TV. She was successful in later episodes of Sa Re Ga Ma when she participated there for a second time. Ghoshal's last connection with Sa Re Ga Ma was the "mega-final" held during the 200th episode on January 1999. It included such judges as Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Ram Narayan, Vilayat Khan, Girija Devi, Anil Biswas, and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Ghoshal was declared the winner of the competition.^[8][13]

Regarding her participation in Sa Re Ga Ma, Ghoshal said, "Sa Re Ga Ma, a popular Indian television show at the time, was on the lookout for talented singers. I grabbed the opportunity and mailed my songs in a cassette. Within days, I was called to audition." Kalyanji, who also judged the competition, convinced her parents to move to Mumbai. He asked her father to get transferred if he really wanted a Bollywood career for his daughter. Her father requested a transfer to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai.^[12] She was trained in playback singing by Kalyanji for 18 months and she continued her classical music training with Mukta Bhide in Mumbai.^[8]

Shreya recorded her first song as a professional singer on mike in Marathi. It was a cover version of Ganraya Rangi Nachato, which was originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar and the recording was done at Suresh Wadkar's studio in Mumbai.