Indian playback singers are the prominent playback ones whose singing is pre-recorded to render their voices to the heroes and heroines of the films. Playback singing and the array of singers are the anchors to the boat of Indian playback singing whose contribution is almost unparalleled. The playback singers record their songs on soundtracks, and actors or actresses offer lip-sync to the songs in front of the cameras. Movies produced in the India employ this format. A majority of Bollywood, Tollywood, and Kollywood movies in India typically include six or seven songs. Someti*-/mes the songs have solo voice or at times they are duets.
Popular playback singers in India enjoy the same "star" status as popular actors, and talented music directors. The Indian playback singers receive high public admiration. S.P. Bala Subrahmaniyam holds the world record in the Guinness for having sung the most number of song recordings by any singer. Lata Mangeshkar holds the similar record for a female singer.
Lata Mangeshkar was born on September 28, 1929 and is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in the Hindi movie industry. Mangeshkar entered the Bollywood industry in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She sang in more than 980 Bollywood movies as a playback singer and has sung songs in over twenty regional Indian languages. However, majority of her songs are in Hindi. She is the elder sister of the equally talented singer Asha Bhosle and lesser-known singers like Hridayanath Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. Lata Mangeshkar is the second vocalist ever to have received the Bharat Ratna - the nation`s highest civilian honour.
Asha Bhosle is best known as a Bollywood playback singer; her career started in 1943 and has extended over six decades. She has been doing playback singing for more than 950 Bollywood movies and sold innumerable records. She is considered one of the most versatile South Asian singers and her range of songs includes film music, pop, ghazals, bhajans, traditional Indian Classical Music, folk songs, qawwalis, Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geetis. Asha Bhosle sung in over 14 languages including Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, English, Russian, Czech, Nepali, Malay and Malayalam.
Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay also known as Hemanta Mukherjee was an accomplished Indian singer, composer and producer. Kishore Kumar was an Indian playback singer and actor who worked in countless movies. He also achieved notable success as a lyricist, producer, composer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter. Mohammed Rafi was a versatile singer and sang in many Indian languages. He is primarily remembered for his Hindi songs, which still remain very popular in the Indian subcontinent and also among the Indian Diaspora. Along with Mukesh and Kishore Kumar, he is remembered as one of the leading male Bollywood playback singers from the 1950s to the 1970s. He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1965.
Prabodh Chandra Dey or Manna Dey is one of the greatest playback singers of all time in Hindi films and other vernacular Indian films. Hariharan, another Indian playback singer is an established ghazal singer and one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. Kumar Sanu is known as a leading playback singer of Bollywood. Sonu Nigam is a playback singer whose songs have been featured in abundant Bollywood and Kannada movies. He has been releasing numerous Indi-pop albums and also acted in a few Hindi feature films.
Alka Yagnik is an Indian singer, born to parents who were well versed in classical music. Shubha Mudgal is a reputed Indian singer of Hindustani classical music, Thumri, Khayal dance, Dadra and popular Indian Pop music. She is the receiver of National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Music Direction for `Amrit Beej`, Gold Plaque Award for Special Achievement in Music, at the 34th Chicago International Film Festival, the Padma Shri in 2000 and many other awards. Shreya Ghoshal is an Indian playback singer who performed several songs in Bollywood, regional films and also for Indian soaps. Shreya has been singing songs in Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.
Udit Narayan is a commercial playback singer in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Nepali-language cinema. Udit Narayan has sung more than 15,000 songs in around 30 different languages.
Shaan is an acclaimed Indian singer and has sung playback vocals for various Bollywood films, including Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, Lakshya, Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai, Fight Club, Dil Chahta Hai, Dhoom, Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Hum Tum, Salaam Namaste, Dus, Don - The Chase Begins Again, Fanaa and Om Shanti Om.
The other popular singers in India are Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Geeta Dutt, Anuradha Paudwal, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, Sonu Niigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan.
