Shreya Ghoshal (born March 12, 1984) is an Indian singer. Best known as a playback singer in Hindi films, she also sings in other Indian languages including Telugu, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil and Assamese.
Ghoshal's career began when she won the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contest as an adult. Her Bollywood playback singing career began with Devdas, for which she received National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer along with Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer and Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent. Since then, she has received many other awards. Ghoshal was also honored from the U.S. state of Ohio, wherein governor Ted Strickland declared June 26 as "Shreya Ghoshal Day".
She grew up in Rawatbhata, a small town near Kota, Rajasthan, where her father was transferred. Her father, Mr Bishwajit Ghoshal is a nuclear power plant engineer and works for the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, and her mother, Mrs Sarmistha Ghoshal is a literature post-graduate.She lived there for thirteen years and completed her schooling up to Eighth Standard at Rawatbhata at the Atomic Energy Central School.
In 1997, when her father was transferred to Mumbai, Ghoshal had to shift to Mumbai with her family. In Mumbai, she studied at Atomic Energy Central School in Anushaktinagar. She joined the Atomic Energy Junior College for studying Science. However, she felt difficulty in studying Science as her musical career in Bollywood had already began by the time. So, she dropped out from there and enrolled at SIES College at Sion in Mumbai for graduation, where she took up Arts with English as Major.
Rawatbhata was a primeval town, unpolluted and away from urban influence. In Rawatbhata, Ghoshal experienced the existence of several cultural programmes and social assemblages, which facilitated her in starting a musical world of her own. A cultural inclination of her parents and the luck of having a mother as a singer accelerated her musical journey. The involvement of her parents in such functions brought her opportunities to sing as a small child, thereby, introducing her the first lessons in the field of music. Her mother sang during rehearsals and she used to repeat by buzzing the same songs with infantile pronunciation. During those days, her parents detected her love towards singing.
Ghoshal's mother turned out to be her first teacher, when at the age of four, she accompanied her on the harmonium and started practicing songs, chiefly Bengali songs. Her first stage performance was made at their club's annual function. When she turned six, she started her lessons in Hindustani classical music. She got training in Hindustani classical music by Rakesh Sharma of Kota[disambiguation needed], Shri Jayawardhan Bhatnagar, the music teacher of her school, and finally from Mahesh Chandra Sharma of Kota. Her introduction to Hindi film songs and Rajasthani folk was made by Shri Jayawardhan Bhatnagar
In 1995, Shreya became the winner of the All India Light Vocal Music Competition, New Delhi, which was organised by the Sangam Kala Group, in the Light Vocal group at a sub-junior level. Ghoshal was judged by Kalyanji-Anandji and Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra at various times of her life. Ghoshal made her first on-screen appearance with a show, named "Awaz Nayi Andaz Wohi" which was aired on the channel EL TV, where she got Kalyanji-Anandji and Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra as her judges. She made her first studio recording with this show in 1996. As a child, she won the 75th Children's Special episode of the Sa Re Ga Ma (now Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) contest on Zee TV. Further on, she again obtained triumph at miscellaneous episodes of Sa Re Ga Ma. Shreya's last connection with Sa Re Ga Ma was the Mega-final judged by diverse judges, viz, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Ram Narayan, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Girija Devi, Anil Biswas and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Late Padma Shri Kalyanji, who also judged the competition, convinced her parents to move to Mumbai.
She was trained in playback singing by Kalyanji for 18 months and she continued her classical music training with Late Mukta Bhide in Mumbai. In 1998, Ghoshal started recording albums in Indian regional languages, mainly Bengali albums with the label Sagarika. Her first studio album was Bendhechhi Beena, which was released in January 1, 1998, with 14 tracks. Some of her earlier albums include O Tota Pakhi Re (1998), Ekti Katha (1999), Mukhor Porag (2000), and many more, all in the Bengali language.She even recorded devotional songs in albums like Banomali Re (2002)and later, Krishna Bina Ache Ke (2007), singing bhajans in praise of Lord Krishna.
Ghoshal caught the attention of director Sanjay Leela Bhansali when she participated in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa for a second time, this time as an adult.In 2000, Bhansali and music director Ismail Darbar offered her the opportunity to be the voice of Paro, the lead female character of the film Devdas, that was portrayed by Aishwarya Rai. In 2002, she was launched as a playback singer in Devdas. Ghoshal sang five songs in the film, namely, "Silsila Ye Chaahat Ka", "Bairi Piya", "Chalak Chalak", "Morey Piya" and "Dola Re Dola". Devdas helped her in earning national fame. Her songs in Devdas were able to earn her some popular accolades, such as Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for "Dola Re", National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for "Bairi Piya", IIFA Award for Best Female Playback for "Dola Re". Her performance also won her the RD Burman Award for New Music Talent. Possessing a National Award at the age of 18 for her very first song in Bollywood ("Bairi Piya") was a great achievement.
