Kavita Subramaniam

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Kavitha Subramaniam


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Birth_name = Sharada Krishnamurthy
Alias = Kavitha Krishnamurthy
Born = January 25
Died =
Origin = Delhi, India
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Genre = Fusion, Pop
Occupation =
Years_active = 1976-2006
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Associated_acts = Playback Singer
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Sharada Krishnamurthy, credited as Kavitha Krishnamurthy (married name: Kavita Subramaniam) made her mark in the Indian (film) playback industry. She is best known as a Bollywood playback singer. She has lent her voice to several Indian actresses and has also sung some very popular Hindi film songs. Kavitha is one well-known female singers in the Indian film industry. Her range of songs include film music, classical, pop, traditional songs in regional movies and bhajans. She has sung for movies in several languages, including Gujarati, Marathi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Mayalam, Kannada, Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Jharkandi, and Bengali.

Professional career

In 1971, when she was still a child, she sang her first film song which happened to be a Bengali duet with renowned playback singer Ms. Lata Mangeshkar that was conducted by the music director Hemant Kumar. Kavitha moved to Bombay with her aunt to try her luck as a playback singer. She has attended the St. Xavier's College in Bombay and acquired a degree in Economics. During a college festival, she met Ms. Ranu Mukherjee, Hemant Kumar's daughter. Ranu reintroduced Kavitha to her father and he began utilizing her talent as a singer during his live performances. The music director and singer Manna Dey spotted her talent and employed her to sing ad jingles. Her aunt introduced her to Mrs. Jaya Chakravarthy, the late. mother of actress Hema Malini who later took the initiative of meeting Laxmikant (of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal) fame in late 1976.

Impressed by Kavitha's skills, Laxmikant offered her work as a dubbing artiste cutting demos of songs intended for playback singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. In the 1980s "Kaahe Ko Byaahi" was the first song that was featured in a film using her own voice. In 1985, she landed her with her first major hit, "Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon". In her struggle phase, Laxmikant-Pyarelal backed her so strongly that she was labelled as someone from the Lakshmikant-Pyarelal camp. After the success of "Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon", it opened up opportunities for her outside the Laxmikant-Pyarelal camp, with which she had faithfully worked up to that point.

In 1994, when R D Burman staged a mind-blowing comeback with , he selected Kavitha to sing for him. The music went on to be a superhit, unfortunately, Panchamda passed away. She went on to become the most popular female playback singer after Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. During the 1990s, she worked with some of the best music directors of India including Anu Malik, Jatin-Lalit, Nadeem-Shravan, Ismail Darbar, A R Rahman.

Awards

Filmfare Awards

Best Female Playback Singer for Pyar Hua Chupke Se - (1995)Best Female Playback for Mere Piya Ghar Aaya - Yaarana (1996)Best Female Playback for Aaj Main Upar - (1997)Best Female Playback for Dola Re Dola - Devdas (shared with Shreya Ghoshal)

Other Awards

* Padmashri Award by Indian Government for outstanding contribution to Indian film music (2005)
* Star Screen Award for Best Female Playback singer for Aaj Main Upar from (1997)
* Star Screen Award for Best Female Playback singer for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam: title song (2000)
* Zee Cine Award for Best Female Playback Singer for Nimbooda from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (2000)
* IIFA Best Female Playback Singer for Dola Re Dola from Devdas (shared with Shreya Ghoshal) (2003)
* Zee Cine Award for Best Female Playback Singer for Dola Re Dola from Devdas (shared with Shreya Ghoshal) (2003)

Personal life

Kavitha Krishnamurthy married Dr. L. Subramaniam in Bangalore on November 11 1999. The surprise wedding took place in Bangalore in the presence of just 25 relatives. The world came to know it only on November 15 1999. Dr. L. Subramaniam has three children from his earlier marriage and she accepted them as her own children. Their daughter Seetha is a law graduate and is currently working on an English album. Narayanan, the middle one is a qualified doctor and loves music while Ambi, the youngest is a violinist. She says that they chose to live in Bangalore as her husband likes the city a lot and decided to make it his base. She would ideally prefer to work out of Bangalore but feels the need to be with her family.

Future Plans

Dr. L. Subramaniam and Mrs. Subramaniam are planning a music institute in Bangalore. It would be named after her late father-in-law Lakshminarayana, who was also her husband's guru. The idea is to make it a global institute. She says that the institute would teach both Indian and Western music. She wants her students to learn from the works of Mozart so that they can collaborate with western musicians who come to India. The dream has began with violin classes. She says that she is not going to be involved in too many classes. Her role in the institute would be to supervise the teaching process and conduct workshops on how to interpret a song.

Her greatest wish is to create the best music library that India has ever had, including a vast variety of world music. Dr. L. Subramaniam has collected a lot of material to which they want teachers, students and enthusiasts to have access.

Famous Songs

{| class="wikitable sortable"
- !Song !!Film !!Other singer
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Hawa Hawaai ||Mr India ||Solo
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Ilu Ilu ||Saudagar ||Manhar, Udit Narayan
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Saudagar Sauda Kar ||Saudagar ||Manhar, Sukhwinder Singh
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Dil Ne Kaha Chupke Se ||1942 A Love Story ||Solo
-
Tu cheez badi hai mast mast ||Mohra ||Udit Narayan
-
Tu Hi Re ||Bombay ||Hariharan
-
Kuchi Kuchi Rakamma ||Bombay ||Udit Narayan, G.V.Prakash, Shardha
-
Mera Piya Ghar Aaya ||Yaarana ||Solo
-
Oh Yaara Dil Lagana ||Agni Sakshi ||Solo
-
Aaj Main Oopar || || Kumar Sanu
-
Ye Dil Sun Raha Hai || ||Solo
-
Dola Re Dola ||Devdas ||Shreya Ghoshal
-
Kahe Ched Mohe ||Devdas || Madhuri Dixit, Pandit Birju Maharaj
-
Hamesha Tumko Chaha || [Devdas||Udit Narayan
-
Kya Janoo Sajan ||Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar ||Solo
-
Hum DIl De Chuke Sanam || [Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam||Mohd. Vakil, Dominique, Salamat
-
Nimbooda Nimbooda||Hum Dil Dr Chuke Sanam ||Solo
-
Koi Mil Gaya ||Kuch Kuch Hota Hai ||Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
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Saajanji Ghar Aaye ||Kuch Kuch Hota Hai ||Kumar Sanu
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Dholi Taro Dhol Baaje ||Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam ||Udit Narayan, Vinod Rathod
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Bole Choodiyan ||Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham ||Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, Amit Kumar
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Satrangi Re ||Dil Se || [Sonu Nigam (Background Singer)
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Uppu Karuvaadu ||Muthalvan || Shankar Mahadevan
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Achacho Punnagai ||Shahjahan ||Solo
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Kaathre En VAsal ||Rhythm ||P. Unnikrishnan
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Wo Ladki Hai Kahan ||Dil Chahta Hai ||Shaan
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Loye Loye ||Yaarana ||Solo
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Kya Kehna ||Kya Kehna ||Hariharan
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Albela Sajan ||Zubeida ||Solo
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Main Albeli ||Zubeida ||Solo
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Dheeme Dheeme ||Zubeidaa ||Solo
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Ye Pyar Kya Hai ||Gupt ||Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik
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Gupt Gupt ||Gupt ||Hema Sardesai
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Tu mujhe Kabool ||Khuda Gawah ||Mohammad Aziz
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Kya Janoo Sajan ||Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar ||Solo
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I Love My India ||Pardes ||Solo
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Que Sera Sera ||Pukar ||Shankar Mahadevan
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Sunta Hai Mera Khuda ||Pukar ||Udit Narayan, Swarnalatha
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Ishq Bina ||Taal ||Sonu Nigam
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Kuch Na Kaho ||Mehbooba ||Alka Yagnik
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Main Vari Vari || ||Solo
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Eli Re Eli ||Yaadein ||Solo