Shalmali Kholgade Biography • Musician, Singer • Profile

Shalmali Kholgade is an Indian playback singer, who predominantly sings for the Hindi language films. In addition to Hindi, she has also sung in other Indian languages such as Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, and Tamil. Through her successful career, she has received one Filmfare Award and has established herself as one of the leading playback singers of India.

Early Life

Shalmali Kholgade was born on January 2, 1990, in Mumbai, India into a Hindu family. Shalmali Kholgade parents live in Padmavati CHS, opposite to IIT. Shalmali Kholgade father was working with IIT, Powai. Her uncle Kishore Degewekar is also a resident of Powai. Her mother Uma Kholgade is a renowned singer of India.

Shalmali completed her schooling at a local school of Mumbai then she received her secondary education from another local college of Mumbai. The singer took training in Music at the age of only 8 under her mother.

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 Los Angeles College of Music for their April semester but decided not to attend, due to her recording commitments.

Career

Kholgade began her Bollywood playback singing career with the song “Pareshaan” for the film Ishaqzaade (2012), which earned her wide success and several awards and nominations, including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer. The following year, she garnered a second nomination in the Best Female Playback Singer category at Filmfare for singing the song “Balam Pichkari” from the coming-of-age romance Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) and received praise for the song “Baby Ko Bass Pasand Hai” from the sports drama Sultan (2016), starred Salman Khan, both of which rank among one of the highest-grossing Bollywood film. She received critical acclaim for her singing style in a series of hit songs, including “Aga Bai” from Aiyyaa (2012), “Daaru Desi” from Cocktail (2012), “Lat Lag Gayee” from Race 2 (2013) (Katrina Kaif & Jacqueline Fernandez were also part of this movie), “Chingam Chabake” from Gori Tere Pyaar Mein (2013), “Shanivaar Raati” and “Besharmi Ki Height” from Main Tera Hero (2014), “D Se Dance” from Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), “Mohobbat Buri Bemari” from Bombay Velvet (2015), “Shakira” from Welcome to Karachi (2015), and “Naach Meri Jaan” from ABCD 2 (2015), all of which topped the charts.

Kholgade’s first regional song “Raja Raja” from the 2013 Tamil film Naan Rajavaga Pogiren. Her song Oday Oday from the successful film “Raja Rani” was a wide success in the Southern part of India, which made her an accomplished singer in the South Indian film Industry. She followed this success with further regional hits, “Kala Koi Geli” for the Bengali film Proloy (2013), “Preminchaa” for the Telugu film Toofan (2013), “Maria” from the Bengali film Herogiri (2015), “Jil Jil Jil” for the Telugu film Jil (2015), “Tu Mila” for the Marathi film Timepass 2 (2015), and “Kangaroo” from the Marathi film Highway (2015). In addition to these, she was also one of the judges of the Sony Entertainment Television’s reality show Indian Idol Junior for auditions. Currently, she is one of the judges the Colors Marathi Entertainment Television’s reality show Sur Nava Dhyas Nava and is mentoring upcoming new singers.

Acting career

Shalmali made her film debut with a supporting role in 2009 Ranjan Singh‘s East Indian Konkani-Marathi film Tu Maza Jeev, which was released on Maharashtra Day. The film was a moderate success at the Box Office India and earned mixed reviews, however, she was praised for her performance.