Friday, September 13, 2013
SUNIDHI CHAUHAN (born Nidhi Chauhan on
14 August 1983) is an Indian playback singer.
She is best known for her Hindi film songs in Bollywood.
She has recorded songs for Urdu, Oriya, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati and Nepali films,which
made her a leading singer in India and across the world. She has sung the remix
track called "Heartbeat" with Enrique Iglesias.
Chauhan began to sing at the age of four and was discovered
by a local TV anchor. She won recognition through a televised singing
contest, Meri Awaz Suno, which she won, and made her entrance into playback
singing with the Hindi film Shastra.
Her breakthrough was Ram Gopal Varma's film Mast,
in which she sang the hit song "Ruki Ruki Si Zindagi." She has
been nominated for fourteenFilmfare Awards, winning it on two occasions as well
as a Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent. She has won two Star
Screen Awards, two IIFA Awards and one Zee Cine Award.
She started her singing career as a child, giving her first
performance at the age of four, in a local temple in Delhi. She did
her early studies in Greenway Modern School, Dilshad Garden in Delhi.
Thereafter, she began to participate in, and sing for, competitions and local
gatherings. When the famous stage and TV anchor Tabassum spotted her
talent, she made her sing live in her show Tabassum Hit Parade and
asked her family to shift to Mumbai. Tabassum then introduced her to Kalyanji
and Anandji Bhai. Her family shifted to Mumbai in a bid to further
develop the young singer's skills, and Chauhan became the lead singer in
Kalyanji's 'Little Wonders' troupe.
Recognition first met her in 1996, through the music show Meri
Aawaz Suno — the first such televised contest in India — which was
broadcast through the Indian national television channel, Doordarshan. She
won the competition and bagged the top prize of recording an album, Aira
Ghaira Nathu Khaira, with HMV.
Unluckily for Chauhan, Aira Ghaira Nathu Khaira was
promoted as a children's album and failed to get the recognition it
deserved. In 2002, Chauhan observed this in an interview: "My first
song and the contest did not help me much. Nothing happened for a while. But by
then, I had made up my mind that I will pursue singing as a career."
Chauhan
stepped into the world of playback singing with the 1996 Bollywood film, Shastra, after
Aadesh Srivastava asked her to lend her voice to the song "Larki Deewaani
Dekho, Ladka Deewaana." She followed it with work in films like Gang, Veergati, Dahek, Bade
Dilwala, Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat and Samar. By
the age of nineteen, Chauhan had lent her voice to over 350 songs.
Chauhan was born in Delhi. Her father is a minor theatre
personality who pushed her into the music industry from a young age. She has a
younger sister, Suneha.
Chauhan,
who believes herself to be "the most versatile singer today,"
attributes her success to her parents and Indian singer Sonu Nigam. She has
cited Sadma (1983) as her favourite film; gymnastics and cricket as
her favourite sports; and Akshaye Khanna and Madhuri Dixit as
her favourite actors. Chauhan also loves western music and cites Mariah
Carey and Michael Jackson as her inspirations. She has noted
that one of her ambitions is to achieve global fame like they did. She is
known for her admiration of international divas Celine Dion and Whitney
Houston.
After entering the film industry, Chauhan upgraded her wardrobe
and lost twelve kilos by jogging and working out. In an early interview,
she revealed a "secret dream" of seeing herself as a Bollywood actress,
saying, "I have many acting offers too, but I don't want to rush it.
Frankly, I would like to do just one or two films to fulfill that secret dream
of seeing myself as an actress. But my life is singing and my aim is to keep
singing better."
In 2002, at the age of 18, Chauhan married director and choreographer Bobby
Khan, after working on the music video for "Pehla Nasha." It was
reported that the couple married in a secretly arranged ceremony, attended only
by very close friends and vigilantly watched over by security.
Chauhan was initially happy with the marriage. In an interview,
she said : "My in-laws don't make me feel I am 'married'. I don't
feel I have stepped into a new house. I am so comfortable. And Bobby is a
darling. I am very, very happy."
On the
downside, the marriage caused a rift between the young singer and her parents,
who considered the union unsuitable and consequently disowned her. However,
Chauhan and Khan separated a year later, bringing about a reconciliation
between the estranged parents and daughter. Chauhan,
who lived with mentor, actor and TV anchor, Annu Kapoor and his wife Arunita
during the separation, filed for divorce the same year, citing that she had
realized she and Khan "wanted different things from life."
On April 27, 2012, Sunidhi Chauhan married childhood friend and
music composer Hitesh Sonik at a low profile wedding ceremony in Mumbai,but the
reception the couple threw saw some colleagues from the industry in
attendance. Asha Bhonsle, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Smita
Thackeray, Alka Yagnik, Konkona Sen Sharma were spotted at the
reception.
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