Monali Thakur

Monali Thakur (born 3 November 1985) is an Indian singer and actress.

Thakur was born on 3 November 1985 in a Bengali Brahmin musical family in Calcutta (now Kolkata).

Her father Shakti Thakur was a professional singer and actor in Bengali film industry and her sister Mehuli Thakur is a playback singer in Bengal.

She has learnt hip-hop and Bharatanatyam and is also a trained salsa dancer.

An alumnus of The Future Foundation School and St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, Thakur started singing in school and college competitions and performing at local functions.

In 1999, she sang the first song of her career in the film Chena Chena under the musical direction of Anupam Dutta and penned by Pulak Bandyopadhyay.

It was a Bengali children song titled "Choi Choi Choi Tipi Tipi".

The same year, she recorded the title track of Bengali serial Shri Ramkrishna.

She received the Best Playback Singer Award at Anandalok Awards for it when she was 14.

She rose to popularity after placing ninth in Indian Idol 2.

She had to struggle even after Indian Idol to get a strong foothold in the music industry.

Monali started her career in 2000 with the song 'Sundar Kato Sundar' from the Bengali movie Sajoni Aamar Sohag, sung along with Kavita Krishnamurti, Goutam Ghose and Pratik Choudhary.

In 2005, she participated in the singing reality show Indian Idol, She was eliminated very early and stood at 9th position.

About her experience with Indian Idol, which ran for up to six months, Thakur said that she was mostly nervous the entire time.

"I would get severe anxiety attacks while singing on stage and I wish I had more fun at the time".

However, she opened up about the impact of participating in and winning these shows: "You win good money and it gives you face value but you can only capitalise it for no more than a couple of months. The real war starts afterwards once you start working bit by bit".

Post-Indian Idol, Thakur made her singing debut with the song "Kabool Ka Le" in the 2006 film Jaan-E-Mann, composed by Anu Malik; who was also one of the judges in Indian Idol.

She got an offer from music director Pritam Chakraborty to sing two songs for the Bollywood film Race in 2008 – "Khwab Dekhe" (Sexy Lady) and "Zara Zara Touch Me".

In 2008, Thakur rose to prominence with the songs "Zara Zara Touch Me" and "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)" in the film Race, composed by Pritam.

Thakur considers the former of the songs to be her first real breakthrough.

'Zara Zara Touch Me' was originally the only song that Thakur was scheduled for, but her first recording impressed the film's directors Abbas–Mustan enough for them to book her a second song.

According to her: "Ramesh ji and Kumar ji [the producers of Race] had signed me up for an album for Tips at a time independent albums had become extinct, but they liked my voice, and Pritam got me to sing for a scratch recording. Abbas-Mustan [the directors] liked it, and that is how I got the other song, Khwab Dekhe, too".

"Zara Zara Touch Me" was enormously successful, becoming the fourth-most-played song on Indian radio during the first half of 2008.

Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama picked it along with "Pehli Nazar Mein" as the biggest hits of the album and praised the song calling it "fresh, naughty and seductive".

"Zara Zara Touch Me" became one of the year's biggest chartbusters.

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".

That year, she collaborated with Pritam once again for the song "Meow", sung along with Suzanne D'Mello for the film Golmaal Returns.

Also, she performed the title track of Ekhane Aakash Neel, which is an official Bengali remake of the Hindi series Sanjivani, which aired on StarPlus.

In 2009, her first song was "Khudaya Khair" from Billu, which she sang along with Soham Chakrabarty.

The song received mixed reviews from critics but Thakur was praised for her vocals.

Her other songs that year included "Do Dil Hai Janwa", "Hai Junoon (Remix)" and some Bengali tracks like 2 songs, 'Prithibi Onek Boro' and 'Kalke Jilam Jajaber' in Love and 3 songs in Dujone.

In 2010, she sang the song "Dilrubaon Ke Jalwe" in the film Dulha Mil Gaya with Amit Kumar.

Shot on Shah Rukh Khan and Sushmita Sen, the song met with positive reviews where Bollywood Hungama praised her diverse vocals in comparison to her previous songs.

Next, she sang a solo track 'Ishq Mein' in Prince.

The song was praised where critics called it upbeat and her vocals seductive.

That year, she also sang 'Anjaana Anjaani Ki Kahani' from Anjaana Anjaani, composed by Vishal–Shekhar along with the whole album received huge critical acclaim.

". Monali's first large format live concert was at Powai Sarvajanin Durgotsav in 2011.

She was a judge of Zee TV's singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs 2014.

She was also an "expert" on Colors TV's Rising Star for two consecutive seasons.

She is the recipient of several awards including a National Film Award for the song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage" from the film Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) and a Filmfare Award for the song "Sawaar Loon" from the Film "Lootera" (2013).