Mumbai: Renowned singer Shreya Ghoshal turns a year old today. Born March 12, 1984, she grew up in Rawatbhata, a small town near Kota, Rajasthan. Shreya Ghosal’s father Bishwajit was an electrical engineer at NTPC while her mother Sarmistha was a post-graduate scholar in literature. Today on Shreya’s birthday, here are some interesting facts about the singer.
Shreya started singing at the age of four only. She came into the limelight by winning the reality show Sa Re Ga Ma (now Sa Re Ga Ma Pa).
Shreya’s mother was one of her greatest supporters. She helped her during rehearsals and accompanied her on the tanpura while Shreya was singing. Initially as she is from a Bengali family, Shreya sang mostly in her mother tongue. At the age of six, Shreya ventured into other languages and started her formal training in classical music. She was trained by the Late Kalyanji Bhai for 18 months. Then she became a student of the Late Mukta Bhide in Mumbai. Her first stage performance was at a club’s annual function. When she turned six, she started her lessons in Hindustani classical music.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s mother Leela watched her during the 75th children’s special episode of Sa Re Ga Ma. It was she who advised the filmmaker to give Shreya a chance as a playback singer. At the behest of her mother, Bhansali called Shreya and asked her to sing ‘Bairi Piya’ with Udit Narayan.
In 2000, Bhansali and music director Ismail Darbar offered her the opportunity to be the voice of ‘Paro’, the lead female character of Devdas, which was portrayed by Aishwarya Rai. Shreya sang five songs in the film. They are’, Silsila Ye Chaahat Ka’, ‘Bairi Piya’, ‘Chalak Chalak’, ‘Morey Piya’, and ‘Dola Re Dola’, with established singers such as Kavita Krishnamurthy, Udit Narayan, Vinod Rathod, KK and Jaspinder Narula.
Soon Shreya became a favourite of Bhansali. She has featured in a number of Bhansali-directed films like Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela, Bajirao Mastani and Padmaavat.
Shreya, who considers Lata Mangeshkar as her inspiration, has rendered songs in Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and Bhojpuri languages also.
Shreya married childhood friend Shiladitya Mukhopadhyay February 5, 2015 as per in Bengali rituals. The two had dated each other for about 10 years. Recently Shreya has announced that she is all set to become a mom.