The Mumbai-based Hindi film industry in India is popularly known as Bollywood. Globally, Bollywood is considered as the largest film producers in the world that in a year shells out more than 1,000 films. The music used in the films is called filmy music. This word `filmy` originally comes from the Hindi word, meaning "of films").
These filmy songs used in Bollywood movies are in general pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then `lip synching` the words to the song on-screen, frequently while dancing. These days, most of the actors are excellent dancers but usually do not sing, which was prevalent in the past. Kishore Kumar remains the most noteworthy exception of a roaring combination of acting and singing.
Bollywood playback singers do have their own fan following apart from actors. They are usually credited by the quality as well as the quantity of the songs rendered. Some noted playback singers are:
Alka Yagnik --- Alka Yagnik is considered the ruling planet in the realm of Bollywood singing.
Kumar Sanu--- Today Kumar Sanu is regarded as one of the leading playback singers of Bollywood.
Udit Narayan--- Udit Narayan started rising to fame from the year 1988, with the Bollywood super hit movie Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.
Manna Dey--- Manna Dey absorbed the inspiration to learn music from his youngest paternal uncle Sangeetacharya (meaning "Venerable Teacher of Music" in Sanskrit) K. C. Dey.
Mahalaxmi Iyer--- Mahalaxmi Iyer started persuing her career in singing since 1992-1993 under big production houses that invited her to sing jingles for them.
Sadhana Sargam --- Today Sadhana Sargam is considered as the `most gifted versatile singer who can sing any type of songs`.
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam --- S. P. Balasubrahmanyam or Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam is an intellectually productive singer who hails from India.
Rajkumari --- Without any formal training in music, Rajkumari possesses a splendid quality of picking up any sort of music. She has also established herself as a classical singer.
Geeta Dutt --- The appeal and western style that Geeta Dutt exhibited through her renderings was undoubtedly marvellous to behold. During the conservative decade 1950, she became the first choice for a club dance and seductive song.
Roop Kumar Rathod --- Tabla was a passion for Roop Kumar Rathod that he gave up in 1984 to pursue a career in singing. First he entered the world of ghazal singing and very soon fetched a distinct place in the genre.
Sharda --- Sharda was nominated four times for the Filmfare Best Female Singer Award, but she won only once.
Kavita Krishnamurthy --- During 1980s and 1990s, Kavita Krishnamurthy carved a niche in stardom as the `most versatile and technically gifted female singers in the music-reliant Indian film industry`.
Gayatri Iyer --- Apart from being an accomplished playback singer, Gayatri Iyer also obtained her graduation degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow a few years back.
Kunal Ganjawala --- Kunal Ganjawala rose to fame with the breakthrough hit, `Bheegey Honth` from the film Murder.
Babul Supriyo --- A brilliant talent holder, Babul Supriyo has won a twine of awards in singing all throughout his constructive and instructive years in school, college and university.
Shreya Ghoshal--- This talented playback singer has rendered her voice in many Bollywood and Kollywood films. Other than Hindi, Shreya Ghoshal has also sung in languages like Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Marathi.
Vasundhara Das --- Vasundhara Das holds a unique quality of being a `polyglot` (A polyglot is someone with a high degree of proficiency in several languages) who is equally versed in Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, English, a bit of Malayalam and Spanish.
Shamshad Begum --- Shamshad Begum used to perform with her musical group- The Crown Imperial Theatrical Company of Performing Arts for the All India Radio (AIR).
Anuradha Paudwal --- Anuradha Paudwal has worked with eminent music composers like, Laxmikant-Pyarelal (in the film Kalicharan), Rajesh Roshan (in the film Des Pardes), Jaidev (in the films Dooriyan, Laila Majnu), Kalyanji-Anandji (in the film Kalaakar, Vidhataa), and Usha Khanna (in the film Souten, Sajan Bina Suhagan).
Usha Mangeshkar --- Usha Mangeshkar received her training in singing under the expert tutelage of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and Ustad Aman Ali Khan.
Amirbai Karnataki --- After finishing her matriculation, Amirbai Karnataki moved to Mumbai at the age of fifteen years, where she got an offer from the big recording house HMV; they made her singing a Qawwali, which went on to become widely popular.
