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Through the '90s, Udit Narayan was the closest rival of Kumar Sanu for the title of most popular male playback vocalist in Indian cinema -- no small feat, since films remain the primary vehicle for disseminating popular music to the Indian public. Though he wasn't quite as prolific as Sanu, Narayan boasted one of the most distinctive voices and original singing styles the music-reliant film industry had seen since the glory days of Mohammed Rafi (Narayan's primary initial influence) and Kishore Kumar. Narayan was born in the village of Mithla Nagri in Janakpur, near the border of Nepal; his father was a farmer and his mother a singer, and she encouraged him to pursue music as a career. For most of the '70s, Narayan worked as a singer on Nepalese radio in Kathmandu, performing Nepalese and northern Indian folk songs. In 1978, he went to Bombay -- the cinema capital of India -- on a music scholarship, and trained for eight years as a classical vocalist. During that time, he also attempted to make contacts in the film industry. Rajesh Roshan gave him an opportunity to sing in the 1980 film Unnees Bees with his hero Mohammed Rafi; he also got the opportunity to sing a small part for renowned music director R.D. Burman in another film, but despite those small victories, the '80s were by and large a decade of struggle and rejection for Narayan. All of that changed, however, in 1989. Narayan hooked up with the up-and-coming composer duo Anand-Milind, who were scoring a film for an up-and-coming young actor named Aamir Khan. Narayan's youthful-sounding voice seemed a perfect match for Khan's screen presence, and he was hired along with female vocalist Alka Yagnik to handle most of the soundtrack, including the centerpiece number "Papa Kehte Hain." Titled Qayamat Se, Qayamat Tak, the film became a blockbuster success, catapulting virtually everyone involved into stardom. Seemingly out of nowhere, the previously unknown Narayan won the 1989 Filmfare Award (sort of an Oscar and Grammy combined) for Best Male Vocalist, thanks to "Papa Kehte Hain," which had become a huge hit among Indian teens. All of a sudden, after years of hard work and obscurity, Narayan was a star. Work -- and further hit songs -- came Narayan's way at a fast and furious pace. His next film, Dil, was another hit, solidifying his newfound reputation; he sang for nearly all of India's major music directors, and dubbed songs for a wide variety of actors (a challenge for some singers whose voices may not fit the characters they are supposed to maintain). In 1995, Narayan broke Kumar Sanu's string of five straight Filmfares with his own second, for the song "Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna" from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge. He won a second straight Filmfare the following year for "Pardesi Pardesi" from Raja Hindustani. Among his most notable achievements of the late '90s, Narayan recorded with the legendary Lata Mangeshkar for the film Dil To Pagal Hai, scored some of his biggest hits from the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and won a fourth Filmfare for "Chaand Chupa" (from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam). Additionally, Narayan watched his young son Aditya become an in-demand filmi vocalist himself, dubbing in song parts for child actors.
Wikipedia:
Udit Narayan Jha, popularly known as Udit Narayan is a playback singer in commercial, Maithili language, Hindi, Kannada, Nepali, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Garhwali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Oriya, Assamese, Maithili and Bengali language cinema. Narayan has sung in 32 different languages. He has won three National Film Awards and five Filmfare Awards. In 2009, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
Career
Udit Narayan Jha was born on 1 December 1955 in a village called Bhardaha in the Saptari district, Nepal. His father was Hare Krishna Jha and his mother was Bhuwaneshwari Devi.
Narayan studied at P.B. School, Rajbiraj, where he passed his S.L.C.(class 10) and later obtained his intermediate from Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus, mostly known as RR campus Kathmandu.
Udit Narayan began his career in Nepal singing for Radio Nepal as a staff artiste for Maithili and Nepali folk songs. He sang many popular nepali folk, modern songs in Radio Nepal. His first filmy playback singing was for Nepali film Sindur.It was a comedy song for famous nepali comedians (Late) GopalRaj Mainali (Chankhe) and Basundhara Bhushal (Nakkali). It was a duet song with Sushmaa Shrestha now known as Poornima in Hindi film Industry. After eight years in that role, Indian Embassy offered him the chance to study classical music at a prestigious school in Bombay, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan on a music scholarship. He moved to Bombay in 1978.
He got his first break in 1980, when noted music director (composer) Rajesh Roshan asked him to playback for the Hindi film Unees Bees, and was given the opportunity to sing with the veteran Mohammed Rafi. He later provided playback for a number of films, the most notable being Sannata (1981), Bade Dil Wala (1983) and Tan-Badan (1986). The actual success story of his career began in 1988 when Anand-Milind gave him the oppportunity to sing all the songs for the successful Bollywood movie Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, earning him a Filmfare Award. The film also brought actor Aamir Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and playback singer Alka Yagnik to stardom. After the success of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, he became one of the leading playback singers in the Indian film industry.
He has worked with musicians like Rahul Dev Burman, Rajesh Roshan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, A. R. Rahman, Anand-Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin Lalit, Anu Malik, Jagjit Singh, Uttam Singh, Raam Laxman, Ilayaraja, Bhupen Hazarika, Shiv-Hari, Ravindra Jain, Madan Mohan, Vishal Bhardwaj, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Himesh Reshammiya, Viju Shah, Vidyasagar, M. M. Keeravani, Ismail Darbar, Anand Raj Anand, Aadesh Shrivastava, Arun Paudwal, Pritam Chakraborty, Sajid-Wajid, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sohail Sen, Nikhil Vinay, Sandesh Shandilya, Ram Sampath, Rahul Sharma, Daboo Malik, Sukhwinder Singh, Roop Kumar Rathod, Adnan Sami, Sanjeev Darshan, Vishal-Shekhar, Ajay-Atul, and directors like Yash Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ashutosh Gowariker and Karan Johar. Some of those films include Lagaan, Darr, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai, Mohabbatein, Devdas, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Swades and Veer Zaara. He has also sung hit songs for actors like Aamir Khan, Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar, Shahid Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Sunil Shetty, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol, Saif Ali Khan, Bobby Deol, Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgan. Udit's capability as a playback singer knows no bounds, as he has been magnanimously acclaimed in every kind of melody - soulful, romantic, fast-paced and recently, even pop. Udit has an extremely versatile tone which appears to flawlessly suit every Indian hero on screen. And today, innumerable awards and accolades later, Udit Narayan possesses one of the largest arrays of hit songs in the industry.
Udit Narayan has sung many songs with Lata Mangeshkar in many successful Hindi films like Darr, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Dil To Pagal Hai, Mohabbatein, Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai, Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain, Veer-Zaara, Lagaan, Mujhse Dosti Karoge to name some. He has sung maximum duets with Alka Yagnik. They have sung for movies Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Raja, Akele Hum Akele Tum, Raja Hindustani, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., One 2 Ka 4, Lagaan, Tere Naam, Kyon Ki to name a few. Udit Narayan is best known for his exceptional vocal quality and his originality. His vocal quality often compared with the Bollywood veteran singers like Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi. His voice never resembled any of the old singers. Many musical biggies like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Pankaj Udhas and Anup Jalota believes that Udit Narayan is the best in his generation for his quality in voice and originality Udit Narayan has been hailed as the screen voice of Shahrukh Khan and has sung many songs for him in famous movies like Darr, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Mohabbatein, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Devdas, Chalte Chalte and Swades for which he won his third National Film Award for the song "Yeh Taara Woh Taara".
At the same time, he sang in Nepalese movies, and also acted in two Nepali films Kusume Rumal and Pirati. He has worked in Nepalese films as well, in particular for composer Shambhujeet Baskota. During his early singing career, he performed songs composed by Shiva Shankar, Natikaji and Gopal Yonjan. In 2004, he released his first private Nepalese album, Upahaar, in which he also sang duets with his wife Deepa Jha. At the Hits FM Awards in 2004 he won awards in two major categories for the album, Record of the Year and Album of the Year. Some of Narayan's other private albums are Bhajan Sangam, Bhajan Vatika, I love You, Dil Deewana, Yeh Dosti, Love is Life, Jhumka de Jhumka, Sona No Ghadulo, Dhuli Ganga, and Ma Tarini.
He was in the panel of judges of Indian Idol 3 along with music composer Anu Malik and female playback singer Alisha Chinai on Sony TV.
He was in the panel of judges on Sony TV for Waar Pariwaar, a reality show based on the bringing together of a singing gharana (family of singers). He shared judging duties with fellow playback singer Kumar Sanu and Jatin Pandit of the famous music duo Jatin-Lalit. Indian Idol 3 judge, Saregama many time special gust, X Factor, Jo Jita wo super Star special judges
Narayan has performed in many stage shows in India and abroad and is the recipient of a large number of awards. These include Screen Videocon Award, MTV Best Video Award and Pride of India Gold Award.
In 2009, Narayan was considering running as a candidate for the Padma Shri. In 2010, Udit Narayan with Madhushree sang for the English independent film "When Harry Tries to Marry"
Personal life
Narayan is a resident of Mumbai. He is married and has one son. His second wife Deepa Narayan, whom he married in 1985, is a singer, and the two recorded an album together titled Dil Deewana. Their son is Aditya Narayan who is a former child actor, singer and television presenter. Aditya Narayan started his singing for child artists in Nepali film with his father before starting his singing career in Hindi movies in the 1990s and also acted in a few films.
