This 22 year old ex-HFS girl, Shalmali Kholgade from Powai bagged the best Female Playback Singer award for 2013 at the prestigious 58th FILMFARE AWARDS on 20th Jan for the song ‘Mein Pareshaan….Pareshaan….’ from the film Isahqzaade.
She has recently made her entry in Bollywood with her sensuous voice. She’s delivering hit numbers like Pareshaan (Ishaqzaade) and now Daaru Desi (Cocktail). Shalmali Kholgade is also singing for Rani Mukherji in Anurag Kashyap’s upcoming film ‘Aiyya’.
She has been on a roll with her debut in Bollywood, this year she bagged the 19th Screen Awards-Best Playback Singer of the Year-Female. And in Jan this year she was chosen for Fresh Talent of the year at Zee Cine Award this year.
Her parents live in Padmavati CHS, opp IIT. Her father was working with IIT Powai and mother is a trained classical singer. Her uncle Kishore Degwekar, a resident of Powai said, “This is her first major award and this promising singer is to be watched to rise to international heights in her career. She is an extremely talented girl.”
When asked how did Pareshaan happen? She said, “I have a friend who worked as a programmer for Amit Trivedi. And one fine day he asked me if I could send him a demo. I had already recorded two demos for LA Music Academy, where I was headed to study. I told him that the demos were of no use, ‘coz they were in English. He insisted and I went ahead without wasting much time. I was called for a meeting the next day, but I had my own apprehensions and hence I consulted some people I knew. And everyone had the same question – how could I say ‘no’ to Amit Trivedi! At the meeting, Amit just made me sing two lines and the very next day we recorded the song.”
Shalmali began performing at the age of 16 and has had her tutelage in music from the age of 8 years under her mother, Uma Kholgade – an Indian classical singer and theatre personality. She later continued her music education under Shubhada Paradkar and has also recently been accepted by the L.A. Music Academy for their April semester but decided not to attend, due to her recording commitments.
A versatile singer who sings both in English and Hindi, Shalmali paid a two hour tribute to one of her favourite singers; Amy Winehouse last year at Blue Frog, Mumbai which was attended widely. She is also a vocalist with Mikey Mcleary’s popular act ‘The Bartender’ where she has performed beautiful renditions of vintage Bollywood songs revamping it with a flavour of sensuous, old school jazz and will soon be featured in their upcoming album.
Furthering her versatility as a performer, Shalmali has performed as a soloist with a Latvian troupe in a Cabaret named Bombaloo which toured Moscow, Russia and Yerevan, Armenia.
Shalmali is also associated with director, Vasan Bala’s ‘Halahal’ ( Peddlers) – a film which has been selected to represent India at the 51st edition of Cannes Critics’ Week, a parallel section of the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival, and for which she has sung a number of songs, composed by music composer/director – ‘Karan Kulkarni’. Shalmali is also singing for Anurag Kashyap’s upcoming film ‘Aiyya’.
Source: http://www.planetpowai.com/
