What
people identify most about Richa Sharma is her
full-throated classy voice! That’s what sets this
young singer apart from the rest of the lot. It’s
been ten long years since Richa landed in Mumbai in
search of an identity in the music field. Today she
is one of the most respected and talented singers in
Bollywood having worked with almost everybody in the
music fraternity.
Richa Sharma is the youngest of seven children of a
temple priest in Faridabad (Haryana). Her father
Pandit Daya Shankar Upadhyaya and mother Manorma
Devi taught young Richa the art of singing bhajans,
particularly Mata Ke Jagran, which slowly and
steadily became Richa’s destiny in the initial years
of her life.
When she was eight years old, she was invited to
sing before religious congregations in and around
Delhi. She got herself enrolled in the Gandharva
Mahavidyalaya. Under the tutelage of Pandit Aaskaran
Sharma, Richa went on to get proper training in
Indian classical and light music. Richa added
ghazals; film songs, Punjabi and Rajasthani folk
songs to her repertoire, thus making her voice reach
out to more and more people in a variety of sounds.
Richa landed in Mumbai in 1994. She sang cover
versions and bhajans during her period of struggle.
i She made her playback debut in Bollywood with
Sawan Kumar’s SALMA PE DIL AA GAYA in 1996 and
followed it up by a number of films until the big
hit came by in the form of TAAL where she sang for
AR Rahman.
Thereafter a spate of hits followed: ZUBEDIA,
SAATHIYA (with AR Rahman); HERA PHERI (Lalit Sen);
KHAKHEE (Ram Sampath); TARKEEB (the song Duppatte Ka
Palu), BAGHBAN (Title Song for Aadesh Shrivastava);
SOCH (the song Nikal Chali Be for Jatin-Lalit);
RUDRAKSH, KAL HO NA HO (Sad version of the title
track for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy); GANGAJAL (Sandesh
Shandilya); POPCORN KHAO MAST HO JAO (for
Vishal-Shekhar) and the most popular song for KAANTE
(Mahi Ve for Anand Raaj Anand).
Richa Sharma took a step into people’s hearts when
she hosted the ever-popular ANTAKSHRI with Anu
Kapoor on Zee TV. Richa’s exuberance and earthy
style of hosting the show attracted a lot of
attention. She hosted the show for almost a year
before ending a successful run on television.
What
people identify most about Richa Sharma is her
full-throated classy voice! That’s what sets this
young singer apart from the rest of the lot. It’s
been ten long years since Richa landed in Mumbai in
search of an identity in the music field. Today she
is one of the most respected and talented singers in
Bollywood having worked with almost everybody in the
music fraternity. 