Did you know Kavita Krishnamurthy's birth name is Sharada? Or that she has her own mobile app? As the versatile singer turns 61, we recap some interesting facts about the songstress
Kavita Krishnamurthy
>> Kavita Krishnamurthy was born Sharada Krishnamurthy in a Tamil Iyer family in New Delhi.
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>> Daughter of a government official, Kavita aspired to work with the Indian Foreign Services.
>> She began her music training with her aunt who taught her Rabindra Sangeet. She started her formal training in Hindustani classical music.
>> Kavita moved to Mumbai to try her luck as a playback singer in the Hindi film industry.
>> She is an alumnus of St. Xavier's College in Mumbai from where she did her BA Honors in Economics.
>> Kavita's first recording was a Bengali film duet with Lata Mangeshkar in 1971. Singer and music composer Hemant Kumar was impressed by her singing and gave her an opportunity to perform on stage with him. It was in one such performance that playback singer Manna Dey spotted her and roped her in to sing advertisement jingles. She was also part of a TV music show titled 'Aarohi'.
>> Through her aunt's strong contacts, Kavita met Jaya Chakravarthy, actress Hema Malini's mother, who introduced Kavita to the music director Laxmikant (of composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal fame).
>> After an initial struggle, the song 'Hawa Hawaii' from 'Mr. India' (1987) (composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal) proved to be a turning point in her career. Her collaboration with Laxmikant-Pyarelal produced several hits.
>> Kavita went on to become one of the leading female playback singers in the '90s with singing credits in hits like '1942: A Love Story', 'Yaraana', 'Khamoshi: The Musical' and 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam'. Her career boasts of collaboration with several music directors like AR Rahman, Bappi Lahiri, Anand-Milind, Ismail Darbar, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit and Anu Malik. She also sang duets with leading male singers, from Kishore Kumar and Suresh Wadkar to Kumar Sanu, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam.
Dr L Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurthy
>> Songstress Kavita Krishnamurthy first met the acclaimed violinist and Carnatic musician Dr L Subramaniam at a song recording for the latter's Global Fusion Project back in the 1990s. The Bengaluru-based couple, who tied the knot in 1999, have been married for over 16 years. Oft-missing from the Hindi film music circuit, the duo have their hands full, performing at individual and collaborative concert tours across the world, running a music institute — Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts in Bengaluru, and hosting the annual, The Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, in the honour of the violin virtuoso’s late father, V Lakshminarayana. Besides concerts in parts of UK and the US, the duo has also performed Indian Classical music concerts in Iceland, New Zealand, Australia and even Oman.
MUSIC IN THEIR GENES: Kavita Krishnamurthy (second from left) and Dr L Subramaniam (second from right) with their children, Narayana, Bindu and Ambi
>> Though Kavita Krishnamurthy and Dr L Subramaniam have no children, Subramaniam has four children from his previous marriage, who are inclined to music as well.
>> Kavita Krishnamurthy won four Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Awards, including three consecutive awards in the period 1994–1996. She was honoured with the Padmashri in 2005.
>> In March 2013, Kavita launched her own mobile app on Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
>> Kavita will soon make her debut as a composer. She has worked on an album of bhajans, including Meera bhajans.
Also read: Kavita Krishnamurthy on what has kept her away from Bollywood in recent times
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