Mohammed Rafi was an Indian playback singer and musician. He is considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. Rafi was notable for his versatility and range of voice; his songs varied from fast peppy numbers to patriotic songs, sad numbers to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to classical songs. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona and style of the actor lip-syncing the song on screen in the movie. He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award. In 1967, he was honored with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India. In 2001, Rafi was honoured with the "Best Singer of the Millennium" title by Hero Honda and Stardust magazine. In 2013, Rafi was voted for the Greatest Voice in Hindi Cinema in the CNN-IBN's poll.
Filmi music soundtracks are music produced for India's mainstream motion picture industry and written and performed for Indian cinema. In cinema, music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers and the genre represents 72% of the music sales market in India.
Kalyanji–Anandji were an Indian composer duo: Kalyanji Virji Shah and his brother Anandji Virji Shah. The duo are known for their work on Hindi film soundtracks, with many evergreen songs being composed by them.
Suman Kalyanpur is an Indian playback singer who is most notable for her work in Hindi cinema. She recorded songs for movies in several languages besides Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Odia and Punjabi.
Aziz Mian Qawwal was a Pakistani traditional qawwal famous for singing ghazals in his own style of qawwali and is considered one of the greatest qawwals in South Asia. He holds the record for singing the longest commercially released qawwali, Hashr Ke Roz Yeh Poochhunga, which runs slightly over 150 minutes and. Aziz is known by sobriquets — "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", "Fauji Qawwal"(Military Singer) since his early performances were often in army barracks, and "the Nietzschean qawwal".
Laxmikant–Pyarelal were an Indian composer duo, consisting of Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar (1937–1998) and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma . They composed music for about 750 Hindi movies from 1963 to 1998, working for almost all notable filmmakers, including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, K. Balanchander, Boney Kapoor, J. Om Prakash, Raj Khosla, L V Prasad, Subhash Ghai, Mahesh Bhatt, K Viswanath and Manoj Kumar.
Shankar Mahadevan is a Grammy-winning Indian singer and composer who is part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio that writes music for Indian films. In 2023, he was awarded a honorary doctorate by Birmingham City University.
Binaca Geetmala was a weekly countdown show of top filmi songs from Hindi cinema. It was popular and had millions of listeners. Binaca Geetmala was broadcast on Radio Ceylon from 1952 to 1988 and then shifted to the Vividh Bharati Service of All India Radio network in 1989 where it ran until 1994. It was the first radio countdown show of Indian film songs, and has been quoted as being the most popular radio program in India during its run. Its name reflects its sponsorship by Binaca. Binaca Geetmala, and its subsequent incarnations named after Cibaca—Cibaca Sangeetmala, Cibaca Geetmala, and Colgate Cibaca Sangeetmala—ran from 1954 to 1994 on Radio Ceylon and then on Vividh Bharati. They also broadcast annual year-end lists from 1954 to 1993.
Des Pardes is a 1978 Hindi drama film, produced and directed by Dev Anand. This family drama stars Dev Anand and Tina Munim, with Ajit Khan, Pran, Amjad Khan, Shreeram Lagoo, Tom Alter, Bindu, Prem Chopra, A. K. Hangal, Sujit Kumar, Mehmood and Paintal in the supporting cast. For the first time, Dev Anand chose comparatively new music director Rajesh Roshan for this film, who did full justice to his selection as most of the songs became quite popular. The film received a Filmfare award for its sets and also received a nomination for best music director. At the time of its release, the film was an average grosser, but over the years, it has gained a cult status and is regarded as a classic.
5 Rifles is a 1974 Hindi film produced and directed by I. S. Johar. The film stars Rajesh Khanna's look-alike Rakesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor's look-alike Shahi Kapoor, and I. S. Johar. Music was given by Kalyanji Anandji. One particular qawwali of note in this film is the track "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom Sharabi", sung by the notable qawwal singer of his times, Janab Aziz Nazan. Another song "Jab se Sarkar ne Nashabandi Tod Di", sung by Kishore Kumar is also a hit semi-qawwali.
Lal Patthar is a 1971 Indian Hindi-language drama film, produced by F. C. Mehra, and directed by Sushil Majumdar. The film is a remake of the Bengali film, Lal Pathar which was released in 1964 starring Uttam Kumar and Supriya Devi. The film stars Raaj Kumar, Hema Malini, Raakhee, Vinod Mehra, Ajit. The film is one of the rare films where lead actress Hema Malini played a negative role, being a jealous mistress of a zamindar who tries to frame his young wife as an adultress. Her performance received accolades. The music of the film was composed by Shankar–Jaikishan.
Hemlata is an Indian classically trained playback singer in Bollywood. She is best known for her songs in the late 1970s, especially Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se song.
Mahalakshmi Iyer is an Indian playback singer, best known for her Hindi, Assamese and Tamil songs. She has sung in many other Indian languages as well, including Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati and Kannada.
Amit Kumar is an Indian playback singer, actor, music composer. Kumar launched his own music production company, named Kumar Brothers Music. He predominantly worked in Bollywood and regional film songs since the 1970s, including 150 Hindi and Bengali compositions by R. D. Burman. After Burman's death in 1994, citing a lack of quality music composition, Kumar withdrew from playback singing and concentrated on live orchestra shows. In addition to singing in Hindi, has also performed in Bengali, Bhojpuri, Odia, Assamese, Marathi and Konkani. He is the eldest son of singer-actor Kishore Kumar.
Neeraj Shridhar is an Indian film playback singer, composer and singer-songwriter who was the lead vocalist of Indian pop and rock group Bombay Vikings. Bombay Vikings became popular with remix hits like "Kya Soorat Hai", "Woh Chali" and "Chod Do Anchal".
Aaj Rang Hai also known as Rang or Rung (transl. Color) is a Qawwali written by the 13th-century Sufi poet, Amir Khusrau in Hindavi and Braj Bhasha dialects. In the song, Khusrau describes to his mother his ecstasy upon finding his murshid in the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya. The song is a staple of most Qawwali sessions in North India and Pakistan, especially in the Chishti shrines of Delhi. It is traditionally sung as a closing piece at the end of a Qawwali session.
Zohrabai Ambalewali was an Indian classical singer and playback singer in Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was considered one of the most popular female playback singers of early and mid 1940s.
Kamal Barot is an Indian female playback singer mainly worked in Bollywood.
Mujtaba Naza is an Indian singer and music composer from Mumbai. He is son of Aziz Naza, He was an Indian playback singer, live performer and music director known for Chadhta Sooraj Dheere Dheere and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom Sharabi.
