Shreya Ghoshal: Lesser known facts

One of the finest singers Bollywood has come across, Shreya Ghoshal is now hitched with her long time beau Shiladitya Mukhopadhyaya. The beautiful singer, who made her Bollywood singing debut with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s superhit Devdas, has managed to achieve sky high success in her singing career. From being the voice of Paro in Devdas to her latest hits like ‘Main tenu samjawan ki’ and ‘Manwa laage,’ Shreya has won the hearts of her audience. Let’s take a look at some of the unknown and interesting facts about this talented singer.

Singer from the age of four: Singing did not come to Shreya by chance, but she had that singing keeda in her from childhood. She started learning music at a tender age of four. Her mother was her guru then and her first onstage performance was at their club’s annual function. From here on, her journey to make a successful singing career began. From the age of six, Shreya started with her formal training in classical music. She acquired training from Padmashree Late Kalyanji Bhai and Late Mukta Bhideji.

Science out, Arts in: Shreya completed her schooling from Atomic Energy Central School, Rawatbhata, and when she shifted to Mumbai after her father’s job transfer, she enrolled herself in Atomic Energy Junior College to complete her graduation. Science was her main subject then. But destiny had something else in store for Shreya. She soon realized that science is not what she wants to do. She then opted out of Atomic Energy Junior College to pursue her dream of becoming a playback singer in Bollywood. She then studied arts at SIES College, Sion.

Shreya - SLB's mother's discovery: We all know that Sanjay Leela Bhansali was the one who signed Shreya for her first playback song. But it’s quite interesting to know that it was not Mr Bhansali, but his mother Leela Bhansali who discovered Shreya's singing talent. It so happened that Leela Bhansali noticed Shreya singing at the 75th Special Children Episode of TVS Sa Re Ga Ma show. She then called up Sanjay to watch Shreya singing and he was so impressed that he decided to give her a chance in his next film. Unfortunately, it took him a lot of time to locate Shreya as he had forgotten her name. Eventually, he did find her and she became the voice of Paro in Devdas.

Shreya Ghoshal Day: Shreya is not only famous in India, but the entire world acknowledges her for her successful singing career. On April 26, 2013, Shreya was awarded with the highest honour in London by the selected members of Parliament in House of Commons. It is probably the highest honour bestowed to any singer hailing from India. Later on, the Governor of The United States of Ohio, Mr. Ted Strickland, declared the 26th day of June as ‘Shreya Ghoshal Day.’ All her fans celebrated the first ‘Shreya Ghoshal Day’ by uploading their favourite songs sung by Shreya, on micro-blogging site. Seems ‘26’ is a lucky number for Shreya.

Four National awards at the age of 26: Shreya not only sings in Hindi, but several other languages too! Name an Indian language and we can find a song sung by Shreya. Be it Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati, Nepali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada, Shreya has tried her hands on every language. For this, she has won several awards too. It’s not surprising to know that she bagged four National awards at a young age of 26. Numerous trophies of Filmfare awards, Screen awards, Mirchi awards and an unending list of songs rightly define the success of this beautiful singer.

By Nikita Thakkar