Shreya Ghoshal Biography

Shreya Ghoshal or Shreya Ghosal is an Indian playback singer. She performed several songs in Bollywood, regional films and also for Indian soaps like Kasturi. Besides Hindi, she has also sung songs in Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.

Early Years

Shreya Ghoshal was born in a Bengali brahmin family. She grew up in Rawatbhata, a small town near Kota, Rajasthan. Her father works in Bhabha Atomic Research Center as a nuclear power plant engineer for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India while her mother is a post-graduate in literature.

From the age of four Ghoshal accompanied her mother on the harmonium. Her parents enrolled her for formal training in Hindustani classical music in Kota with Maheshchandra Sharma.

As a child she won the children's special episode of the Sa Re Ga Ma contest on Zee TV. Back then, the show was hosted by now-famous singer Sonu Niigaam. Kalyanji who also judged the competition, convinced her parents to move to Mumbai.

She trained with him for 18 months and continued her classical music training with Mukta Bhide in Mumbai.

She studied at Atomic Energy Central Schools (AECS) at Kota and Anushaktinagar (Mumbai). For Graduation she had enrolled herself at SIES College in their Arts Stream.

Career

She caught the attention of film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali when she participated in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa for the second time, this time competing against adults. In 2000, he offered her the opportunity to be the voice of Paro, the lead female character of his film Devdas, who was to be portrayed by Aishwarya Rai. Shreya sang five songs in the film.

Moviegoers from across the world heard Ghoshal’s singing voice pictured on Aishwarya Rai, and she quickly became one of the top female playback singers in Bollywood, alongside Alka Yagnik, Sunidhi Chauhan, Sadhana Sargam and Kavita Krishnamurthy. A  song from the movies earned her the Filmfare Award for best singer that year, as well as the R D Burman award, given to upcoming talents in music at the same award ceremony.

After Devdas, she went on to sing for many other actresses under the baton of various music directors, including Anu Malik, Himesh Reshammiya, M.M. Kreem, Nadeem-Shravan, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Pritam, Vishal-Shekhar, Mano Murthy, Gurukiran, Ilayaraja, A.R. Rahman, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Harris Jayaraj. She has won many awards. She has also received many accolades for the song 'Mere Dholna' from Bhool Bhulaiyaa.

Today Ghoshal is an established industry singer and has recorded in various regional languages, including Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Meitei, Marathi, and Bhojpuri. She also appeared as a judge on the singing show Amul Star Voice Of India Chhote Ustaad. She also sang the title songs of many Indian television serials.

Ghosal has completed her college education, and is planning to pursue her MA in literature. She enjoys symphony and instrumental in western music and her favourite group is ABBA. But Indian music is definitely her soul. Her voice has a texture that suits romantic songs and she can project her voice very well (a fine example is “Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai ” from Jism).

She is also comfortable singing sad songs or peppy songs. Apart from Devdas, she has done songs for Jism, Saaya, Inteha, Out of Control, Khakee, Munnabhai MBBS, Dhoop, Kuchh Kaha Aapne, Armaan, Desh Devi, Tujhe Meri Kasam, LOC Kargil, Aetbaar, Police Force, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Guru, Big B, etc.

She is the only playback singer to have been nominated in 4 out of the 5 nominations for the best playback singer for her songs in 2008 in IIFA 2008.