Rekha Bhardwaj

Rekha Bharadwaj
Rekha Bhardwaj performing at Alive India in Concert (Season 2) at Phoenix Marketcity, Bangalore on 1 February 2014
Background information
Genres	Playback Singing in Bollywood and Regional Films
Occupation(s)	Singer
Years active	1997–present

Rekha Bhardwaj is a noted Indian playback singer. She is known in the Bollywood industry for her distinctive tone, singing style and choice of songs. She has recorded a song "Kabhi Ashna Kabhi Ajnabi" for the Pakistani serial Humnasheen for which she was nominated at Hum Award for Best Original Soundtrack, and also recorded a song "Chan Chariya" for Pakistani film, Bin Roye.

Bhardwaj is an established singer in the film industry and the recipient of two Filmfare Awards and one National Award.

Professional career

Rekha was a student of music at Hindu College, Delhi.^[1] She released her first album titled 'Ishqa Ishqa' in 2002. She sang in the movie Omkara, "Namak Issq Ka", written by Gulzar and composed by her husband, Vishal. She considers Lata Mangeshkar her idol.^[2]

The song "Raat Ki Jogan" from the album, Ishqa Ishqa was conceived in 1994,^[3] almost 10 years before it released, when Vishal Bhardwaj had started composing Baba Bulleh Shah's poetry for Rekha's album. She used to go with Vishal for music sittings with Gulzar for his movie Maachis where one day, Gulzar said he would write the words for Rekha's album.

She has also worked as a music assistant to Vishal on the film Hu Tu Tu.

Rekha Bhardwaj then sang for A. R. Rahman in Delhi 6 and Raavan. The year 2012 saw her sing for music composer Pritam for a film titled Barfi!. The song was titled "Phir le aaya Dil" and won her a few nominations. Bhardwaj again collaborated with Pritam for Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. She rendered "Kabira" with Tochi Raina and "Ghagra" with Vishal Dadlani. The former got her and Raina the GIMA Award for Best Duet 2014. The latter was picturised on actress Madhuri Dixit. She again gave her voice to Dixit on the year 2014. She sang "Hamari Atariya" and "Jagaave Saari Raina" for Dedh Ishqiya. Both songs were picturised on Dixit. The songs were composed by Vishal Bhardwaj. She later went on to receive a nomination at the Filmfare Awards for Best Playback Singer Female for "Humari Atariya". She is currently managed by Mourjo Chatterjee of Tarsame Mittal Talent Management.

Selected discography

References