Male playback singers are the anchors to the cinematic boat whose singing is pre-recorded to render their voices to the heroes and heroines of the films. They are the inseparable strings to the boat of Bollywood or Indian Cinema. The male playback singers give voice to the heroes of movies. As they record their songs on soundtracks, the actors 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. Sometimes the songs have solo voice or at times they are duets.
Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay also known as Hemanta Mukherjee was an accomplished Indian singer, composer and producer. Hemantas soulful melodious voice made him the hot favourite of Bollywood and Tollywood. 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. Kishore was a born genius who made romanticism come back to the celluloid reels and made playback singing a success.
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.
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam is reckoned the most gifted singer who possesses `incredible vocal range, deep rich voice, and mastery of style, technique and control`. This made him achieve supremacy over various genres of Indian music. Today he is considered as the most sought after playback singer. He has sung 17 songs in just 12 hours in recording studios. S. P. Balasubrahmanyam is outstanding in rendering classical music also. Songs in films like Sankarabharanam, Sagara Sangamam, Rudra Veena were completely Carnatic songs. He has also sung Hindustani classical music with his song `Umandu Ghumandu` for the movie `Ganayogi Panchakshari Gavayi`. Balasubrahmanyam has been ruling the world of playback singing for the past 30 years.
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.
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. The unaccredited King of Bollywood Music Udit Narayan has sung more than 15,000 songs in more than 33 different languages. Being one of the most sought after singers of the present generation He got his first break in 1980, when noted music director (composer) Rajesh Roshan asked him to playback for the Hindi film Unees Bees and was given the opportunity to sing with the veteran Mohammed Rafi
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. Kunal Ganjawala , Atif Aslam and Zubeen Garg are the other Male Playback Singers of Bollywood.
