Shalmali Kholgade is a popular Indian playback singer who works primarily for Hindi film industry. She also works as a songwriter for Hindi films. Her very first venture in Bollywood was the song `Pareshaan` from the film Ishaqzaade rendering her immense appreciations and recognition as a promising playback singer of India. Shalmali Kholgade is known for her versatile singing in English, Hindi as well as other regional languages.
Early Life of Shalmali Kholgade
Shalmali Kholgade was born in January 1988. She started exploring the world of music since a young age. She began her training in music since the age of 8 under the expert tutelage of her mother Uma Kholgade who is an Indian classical vocalist as well as theatre artist by profession. The vocal performances of Shalmali Kholgade began at the age of 16. Later she continued her training in music under the tutelage of Shubhada Paradkar. She also received the acceptance of L.A. Music Academy but refused to attend it owing to her recording commitments.
Career of Shalmali Kholgade
Shalmali Kholgade stepped into the music arena of Bollywood in the year 2012 with the movie Ishaqzaade. She marked her debut as the lead vocalist by singing the song `Pareshaan`, composed by Amit Trivedi, in the film. The song gained critical as well as commercial success and topped charts all over the country while her debut playback singing received great acclamations earning her several accolades in the very first step of her career. In the same year she voiced two more songs, `Aga Bai` from Aiyyaa and `Daaru Desi` from Cocktail, both of which attained huge success and popularity. She delivered another commercially hit rendition `Lat Lag Gayee` from the 2013 film Race.
This song also became a chartbuster and became highly popular especially in dance clubs. Her other popular songs in Hindi films include `Balam Pichkari` from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, title track of Shuddh Desi Romance, `Rumani from` Akaash Vani, `Janta Rocks` form Satyagraha, `Hey Mr DJ` form Phata Poster Nikla Hero and many others. In addition to Bollywood, Shalmali Kholgade has also done playback singing in regional cinema such as Bengali, Tamil and Telugu.
In the year 2013, she performed at Blue Frog, Mumbai as a tribute to one of her favourite singer Amy Winehouse which was attended by a number of viewers. She has also worked as a vocalist in Mikey McCleary`s popular act `The Bartender` and performed wonderful renditions of vintage Bollywood songs refurbishing it with old school jazz. Shalmali has also performed with a Latvian troupe in a Cabaret named Bombaloo as a soloist and toured Armenia, Yerevan, Russia and Moscow. Apart from these, she has also appeared in the 2009 Marathi film Tu Maza Jeev as an actor under the direction of Ranjan singh.
Achievements of Shalmali Kholgade
In the year 2013 Shalmali Kholgade won a number of awards for her appealing renditions. She received Filmfare Awards, Screen Awards, Times of India Film Awards, Stardust Awards, Star Guild Awards for Best Female Playback Singer for the song `Pareshaan` form the movie Ishaqzaade. For the same song she also won Zee Cine Awards for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Award for Fresh Singing Talent in 2013.
