Anuradha Paudwal

Anuradha Paudwal
Background information
Native name	मराठी: अनुराधा पौडवाल
Birth name	Alka Nadakarni
Born	27 October 1952 (age 64)
Genres	playback singing, bhajans
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1973–present

Anuradha Paudwal is an Indian playback singer in Bollywood. She is a four-time winner from 15 nominations of the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer,a recipient of the National Film Award.

She has sung in several languages including Hindi, Kannada, Marwari, Pahari, Marathi, Sanskrit, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Maithili.

Biography

Her singing career started in 1973 with the movie, Abhimaan, (starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan) in which she sang a Shloka (a Sanskrit verse). In the same year she also made her Marathi film debut with "Yashoda" (music by Datta Davjekar). In 1974, she brought out a record of Non-film Marathi songs or "bhav geeten" which became very popular.

She also came into focus when she challenged Lata Mangeshkar's claim to having recorded the maximum number of songs in a single day. She also accused the Mangeshkar sisters for indulging in monopoly. This outspoken nature at times landed her in trouble as the music directors of the industry feared to face the wrath of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle and they often avoided Anuradha Paudwal.Many a times Anuradha's songs were dubbed by Lata such as Main Teri Dushman (Nagina) and many such songs.

Paudwal continued to conquer new horizons and winning accolades (Anuradha has won three Filmfare awards in a row for Aashiqui, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin and Beta). She was on the verge of being the next Lata Mangeshkar. Even the legendary composer O P Nayyar commented, "Lata is finished, Anuradha has replaced her." During this period, everything seemed to be working for the singer who left her contemporaries far behind. Kavita Krishnamurthy has always stated that, "Among my counterparts (Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sadhana Sargam, etc.) Anuradha is the best singer."

At her peak Anuradha Paudwal announced that she would exclusively sing for T-series only. This stand benefited Alka Yagnik who just zoomed to the top with her newfound association with Nadeem-Shravan and Anu Malik, who had stopped composing for Gulshan Kumar due to some differences. As she stopped singing songs for films and concentrated more on devotional and cover-version albums, she harmed her immensely successful career. For almost five years, Anuradha Paudwal did not sing for many films and for any other music company.

In 1976, she got her break as a playback singer in Hindi films with Kalicharan (starring Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy). Her first solo was in the movie, Aap Beati, (starring Hema Malini and Shashi Kapoor). Laxmikant-Pyarelal were the music-composer duo for that movie. She also occasionally sang songs for composers Rajesh Roshan (Udhar Ka Sindoor), Jaidev (Dooriyan, Laila Majnu), Kalyanji Anandji (Kalaakar, Vidhaata), and Usha Khanna (Souten, Saajan Bina Suhagan).

Anuradha apparently never received any formal training in classical music, stating in an interview, "I have not received any formal training in classical music. I have tried many times, but it has never worked out. I learnt a little here and a little there, but ultimately, I just practiced for many hours listening to Lataji".^[1]

Anuradha gained recognition with her popular numbers for the movie, Hero, for composers Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Her collaboration with Laxmikant-Pyarelal produced more success with songs for Meri Jung ("O Mere Kwabon Ke"), Batwara ("Thaare Vaaste Re Dola-Tu Maaro Kaun Lage"), Nagina and many more. Ram Lakhan saw Laxmikant-Pyarelal giving three major hit songs to Anuradha. Their association ended with Tezaab where she sang two good numbers for them – "Kehdo Ki Tum" and "Hum Tumko Dilbar Kyon Maane".

Following this she collaborated with movie producer, Gulshan Kumar, and began a success streak with the movies, Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka, Tezaab, Aashiqui and Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin. She along with Gulshan Kumar were instrumental in getting many unknown playback singers to the fore, including Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Abhijeet, Sonu Nigam. New Music directors, including her husband Arun Paudwal, were introduced to the music world. Nadeem-Shravan, Anu Malik, Anand-Milind, Nikhil Vinay and Amar Utpal all collaborated with T-Series (Gulshan Kumar's music label) and started a new era of melody in Bollywood. Most of her duets have been with Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Mohammed Aziz. She sang some songs with Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and also with her female co-singers; Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Alka Yagnik, and Sadhana Sargam. Her other notable songs were also for the famous duo Shiv-Hari, for the movie "Sahebaan". She has also sung for R.D. Burman in her initial days and actually convinced him to make songs for Gulshan Kumar's label in his last days and the song "Aja Meri Jaan" set to one of the background score of R.D.Burman from Saagar is still popular. She also sang beautiful duets with her co-singers from south, notably Dr. K. J. Yesudas and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam.

Work with

Music Directors

She has worked with many music directors like S. D. Burman, Jaidev, Shiv-Hari, Ravindra Jain, Laxmikant–Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, Rahul Dev Burman, Rajesh Roshan, Bappi Lahiri, Anand-Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin Lalit, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, A. R. Rahman, Anu Malik, Jagjit Singh, Anup Jalota, Uttam Singh, Raam Laxman, Hamsalekha, Arun Paudwal, Usha Khanna, Viju Shah, Anand Raj Anand, Vishal Bhardwaj, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Himesh Reshammiya, M. M. Keeravani, Aadesh Shrivastava, Sajid-Wajid, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Nikhil Vinay, Daboo Malik, Sukhwinder Singh, Adnan Sami, Sanjeev-Darshan and Ajay-Atul.

Lyricists

Lyricists she has worked with include Majrooh Sultanpuri, Anand Bakshi, Gulzar, Indeevar, Javed Akhtar, Sameer, Dev Kohli, and Sayeed Quadri.

Marathi

Anuradha sang in a number of Marathi movies including "Disate Majalaa", "Raja Lalakaari", and "Kaalyaa Maatita Maatitaa". Most of these movies had music by the duo of Anil-Arun, Arun being her husband, who collaborated with Anil Mohile to form a pair.

Kannada

Anuradha has sung a number of super hit Kannada film songs and few devotional songs. She once said in an interview that she wants songs to sing in Kannada language.^[2] Anuradha has given her live performance in Mysore Dasara, a prestigious stage for Indian singing stars.^[3] She has given many super hit songs like "Kannada nadina", "Navamasa ninnanu", "yarittaree chukki", "sai sai preethse" and recent hits like "El ellinda" a super hit song from the 2003 Kannada movie Kariya.^[4]

^[5]

Personal life

She was married to the late Arun Paudwal who worked with music director S. D. Burman as his assistant. She also has a daughter named Kavita Paudwal, who is a singer, and a son, Aditya Paudwal.

Popular Bollywood music album

Anuradha paudwal has solo female singer for these movies- Pyar bhara dil, Ghar aaya mera pardesi, Sadak, Lal dupatta mal mal ka, Kasam Teri Kasam, Saathi, Junoon, Aaye Milan ki raat, Meera ka mohan, Bahar aane tak, Dhaai akshar prem ke, Pyar Pyar, Dastoor, Beta, Dil hai ke manta nahin, Maina, Deewana sanam, Main Tera aashiq, Ek dhun Pyar ki, Sangeet, Sahibaan, Doodh ka karz, Jaan ki kasam, Yaadon ke mausam, Shabnam Chor aur chand, Aashiqui, Aaja meri jaan, Bewafa sanam Etc.

Discography

Honour

• 2010: Lata Mangeshkar Award
• 2011: Mother Teresa Award for Lifetime Achievement^[6]
• 2015: Suvarnaratna Awards-2015
• 2004 Mahakaal award from Madhya Pradesh govt.
• the citizen award, which she received at the hand of late Shri Rajiv Gandhi in 1989
• national award of 1990 by the then president Shri Venkat Raman,
• she had got the 28th Maharashtra state Marathi film award in 1990.
• Mahila Shiromani award in 1993 at the hands of the first lady smt. vimal sharma .*
• the India international gold award & the gold medal for the year 1994.
• the NRI association has honoured her with the Natraaj awards.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anuradha Paudwal.

• Anuradha Paudwal at the Internet Movie Database
• List of Hindi movies with songs by Anuradha Paudwal