Monali Thakur

Monali Thakur (মোনালী ঠাকুর)
Monali Thakur at the Kelvinator Stree Shakti Women Awards 2014
Background information
Birth name	Monali Thakur
Born	(1985-11-03) 3 November 1985
Origin	Kolkata, India
Genres	Filmi, Hindustani classical music
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress
Years active	2006–present

Monali Thakur,born on 3rd November 1985 in a Bengali family in Kolkata, India, is an Indian playback singer and actress.

Biography

Thakur comes from a musical family, her father Shakti Thakur, Bengali, renowned Bengali singer^[1] and her sister Mehuli Thakur is also a playback singer.^[2] She was trained in Hindustani classical music under Pandit Jagdish Prasad and Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty.^[3] She has learnt hip-hop and Bharatanatyam and is also a trained Salsa dancer.^[4]

Thakur got her start by singing in school and college competitions and performing at local functions,^[5] and received the Best Playback Singer award at the Anandalok Awards for the serial Sri Ramkrishna when she was 14.^[3] She rose to popularity after placing ninth in Indian Idol 2.^[6]

She had to struggle a lot hard even after Indian Idol to get a strong foothold in the music industry. Finally, she got an offer to sing for music director Pritam Chakraborty to sing two songs for the Bollywood film Race in 2008 – "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy lady)" and "Zara Zara Touch Me".^[6] She was originally scheduled for only one song, but her first recording impressed the film's directors Abbas – Mustan enough for them to book her a second.^[1] "Zara Zara Touch Me" was enormously successful, becoming the fourth-most-played song on Indian radio during the first half of 2008.^[7] She also got nominated for an IIFA Award for Best Female Playback and an Apsara Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Zara Zara Touch Me".

She was a judge in the Bengali music reality show Bengali Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs for two years.^[4][8] She also appeared in the Bengali show Key Hobe Biggest Fan^[8] and was part of Coke Studio.^[9] She briefly dated Meiyang Chаng.^[10][11]

Monali won Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for song 'Sawaar Loon' from the film 'Lootera' for year 2013 ( on 24 January 2014)

Acting

As a child, she appeared in a Bengali television soap, Aalokito ek Indu, in which she played the lead role Indubala.^[12] It was followed by a couple of telefilms,^[12] including Sudeshna Roy's Phagune Agun in which she was seen as Ruman.^[3] She made her acting debut in Raja Sen's Bengali film Krishnakanter Will,^[13] in which she played the role of Bhromor.^[14] In 2014, she made her Bollywood debut in Nagesh Kukunoor's Lakshmi.^[15] The film is about human trafficking and child prostitution and Thakur plays a 15-year-old girl who gets trapped in it.^[16] She will also be seen in Abbas Tyrewala's multistarrer Mango.^[17]

Discography

Filmography

References

External links

• Monali Thakur at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Monali Thakur on Twitter
• Monali Thakur on Facebook