Kishore Kumar was an Indian playback singer, musician and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. Kumar was one of the most popular singers in the Indian subcontinent, notable for his yodelling and ability to sing songs in different voices. He used to sing in different genres but some of his rare compositions, considered classics, were lost in time.
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.
Prabodh Chandra Dey, known by his stage name Manna Dey, was a renowned Indian playback singer, music director, and musician. He had a classical music background, being part of the Bhendibazaar Gharana and receiving training under Ustad Aman Ali Khan. Manna Dey is widely recognized as one of the most versatile and celebrated vocalists in the Hindi film industry, and is often acknowledged for his significant contributions to integrating Indian classical music into Hindi commercial cinema. As a musician, Dey is particularly acclaimed for incorporating Indian classical music elements into a pop musical framework, a contribution that played a pivotal role during the golden era of Hindi cinema.
Mukesh Chand Mathur, better known mononymously as Mukesh, was an Indian playback singer. Mukesh is considered to be one of the most popular and acclaimed playback singers of the Hindi film industry. Amongst the numerous nominations and awards he won, his song "Kai Baar Yuhi Dekha Hai" from the film Rajnigandha (1973) won him the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.
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.
Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is an Indian National Award and Filmfare Award winning musician, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film industry. He is the son of Sardar Malik.
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.
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.
Shamshad Begum was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Notable for her distinctive voice and range, she sang over 6,000 songs in Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Punjabi languages, among which 1287 were Hindi film songs. She worked with renowned composers of the time, such as Naushad Ali and O. P. Nayyar, for whom she was one of their favorites. Her songs from the 1940s to the early 1970s remain popular and continue to be remixed.
Abdul Hayee, popularly known by his pen name (takhallus) Sahir Ludhianvi, was an Indian poet who wrote primarily in Urdu in addition to Hindi. He is regarded as one of the greatest film lyricist and poets of 20th century India.
Abhijeet Bhattacharya, professionally known as Abhijeet, is an Indian playback singer who primarily sings in Hindi Film Industry. Apart from Hindi, he has also sung in other languages including Bengali, Marathi, Nepali, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Odia and his native language Bengali both in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Abhijeet has sung 6034 songs in more than 1000 films.He was nominated for Forbes Popular 100 Indian Celebrity in the year 2014.
Shailendra was a popular Indian Hindi-Urdu Poet, lyricist and film producer. Noted for his association with the filmmaker Raj Kapoor, singer Mukesh, and the composers Shankar–Jaikishan, he wrote lyrics for several successful Hindi film songs in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Bhupinder Singh was an Indian musician, a ghazal singer and also a Bollywood playback singer.
Sonu Nigam is an Indian playback singer, music director, dubbing artist and actor. He has been described in the media as one of the most popular and successful playback singers in Hindi and Kannada cinema. In 2022, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the country's fourth-highest civilian honour for his contribution in the field of arts.
Sharda Rajan Iyengar, known professionally as Sharda, was an Indian playback singer most active in the 1960s and 1970s. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the cabaret "Baat Zara Hai Aapas Ki" in Jahan Pyar Miley (1970), though she is most remembered for her song "Titli Udi" in Suraj (1966). In 2007, she released her album Andaaz-E-Bayan Aur, featuring her own compositions based on Mirza Ghalib's ghazals.
Mohammed Aziz, also known as Munna, was an Indian multilingual playback singer who primarily sang for the Bollywood, Odia films, Bengali. He sang about twenty thousand songs, including Bhajans, Sufi devotional songs and other genres in more than ten different Indian languages. He made his first appearance in films Odia film titled Jaga Hatare Pagha directed by Mohammad Mohsin, with the song Rupa Sagadi re Suna Kaniya. Later he the sung most numbers of songs in Odia and for Ollywood Actor Siddhanta Mahapatra. Later he appeared with a Hindi film titled Ambar (1984) and his two prominent songs, including "Mard Tangewala" composed by Anu Malik were introduced in Mard.
Om Prakash Bhandari, better known as Qamar Jalalabadi, was an Indian poet and lyricist of songs for Hindi movies. He composed the title track of the popular television serial Vikram Aur Betaal.
Ghulam Mustafa Durrani was an Indian radio drama artist, playback singer, actor and music director.
Sachin Dev Burman was an Indian music director and singer. A member of the Tripura royal family, he started his career with Bengali films in 1937. He later began composing for Hindi movies and became one of the most successful and influential Indian film music composers. Burman composed the soundtracks for over 100 movies, including Bengali films and Hindi. Apart from being a versatile composer, he also sang songs in the light semi-classical and folk style of Bengal. His son, R. D. Burman, was also a celebrated music composer for Bollywood films.
Amaal Mallik is an Indian music director, composer, singer, music producer, arranger, background scorer, performer and lyricist. He is the elder son of Daboo Malik and Jyothi Malik, and grandson of Sardar Malik. He debuted as a composer in 2014 by composing three songs for Salman Khan's Jai Ho, following it up with the song "Naina" from Khoobsurat. He got widely recognition by composing songs for M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. He is signed on by Sony Music India.
