Birthday Wishes to Kavita Krishnamurthy

Born: 25 January 1958 (age 62 years), New Delhi

Kavita Krishnamurthy is an Indian film playback singer. Trained in classical music, Kavita Krishnamurthy has recorded more than 15,000 songs. In her career, she has worked with a variety of music composers, including Laxmikant–Pyarelal, Naushad, S H Bihari, Kaifi Azmi, Anjan, O P Nayyar, Khayyam, Hemant Kumar, Ravinder Jain, Babpi Lehri, Sameer, Javid Akthar, Anu Malik,, R. D. Burman, Hamsalekha and A. R. Rahman. She is also the recipient of four Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Awards, including three consecutive awards in the period 1994–1996, and the Padmashri which she received in 2005.

Kavita was born Sharada Krishnamurthy in a Tamil Iyer family in New Delhi, India to T.S. Krishnamurthy, an employee of the Education Ministry. She began her music training at the insistence of her aunt, Protimma Bhattacharya who enrolled her with Suruma Basu, who taught her Rabindra Sangeet. She began her formal training in Hindustani classical music under Balram Puri, a classical singer. At the young age of eight, Kavita won a gold medal at a music competition. She won many medals participating in the Inter-Ministry Classical Competition in New Delhi in the mid 1960s.

During her College days at St. Xavier College, Mumbai, she got an opportunity to record a Tagore song in Bengali film in 1971 Shr Ram Prutviraj with Song Lata Mangeshkar under the auspices of the music composer and singer Hemant Kumar. Although the young Sharada aspired to work with Indian Foreign Services, she moved to Bombay when she was 14 to try her luck as a playback singer in the Hindi film industry.

She is an alumnus of St. Xavier's College, Bombay from where she did her BA Honors Economics. She was very active in the St. Xavier's Music Group during her college days. During the annual college festival (Malhar), she met Ranu Mukherjee, the daughter of Hemant Kumar. Ranu took the initiative of reintroducing Kavita to her father. He was impressed by her grounding in music, so he began using her as a singer during his live performances. In one such performance, playback singer Manna Dey spotted her and employed her to sing advertisement jingles. Through her aunt's strong contacts, she met Jaya Chakravarthy, the mother of actress Hema Malini, who later took the initiative of introducing Kavita to the music director Laxmikant (one of the composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal) in late 1976.

In 1978, she first sang the Kannada song "Ondanondu kaaladaga" in the film Ondanondu Kaladalli(Meaning: Once upon a time) directed by Girish Karnad.The song penned by Jnanpit awardee Chandrashekhara Kambara and music by Bhaskar Chandavarkar. Being the only song in the entire movie, Ondanondu kaladaga with its folk touch, became a hit and earned fame for Kavita Krishnamurthy. Then she went on to sing so many Kannada songs.

In 1980, she sang the song, "Kaahe Ko Byaahi" in the film Maang Bharo Sajana (1980) - Kaahe Ko Byaahi, which featured her singing in her own voice. Unfortunately, the song was dropped from the final cut of the film. In 1985, her career took off with her first major hit, "Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon" from the Hindi film Pyaar Jhukta Nahin (1985) - Tumse milkar.Na Jaane kyun Post the success of the song, it opened up opportunities beyond the Laxmikant–Pyarelal camp. However, "Hawa Hawaii" and "Karte Hain Hum Pyaar Mr. India Se", two popular songs from the equally popular movie Mr. India (1986) - Karte Hain Hum pyaar Mr. India se, proved to be a turning point in her career. (The songs were composed by music composers Laxmikant-Pyarelal, the latter being a duet with Kishore Kumar and lip-synced on screen by actress Sridevi.) Her collaboration with Laxmikant-Pyarelal produced several hits.

She went on to work with several music directors of Hindi films of the 1990s, such as Bappi Lahiri, Anand-Milind, A. R. Rahman, Rajesh Roshan, Raamlaxman, Ismail Darbar, Himesh Reshammiya, Aadesh Shrivastava, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin Lalit, Viju Shah and Anu Malik. Her work with A.R. Rahman and Ismail Darbarremains some of the most critically acclaimed renditions of the last two decades. During her stint as a playback singer, she sang duets with the leading male singers of her times. Early in her career, she sang duets with Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, and Shailendra Singh. Her most prolific work was with the leading singers of the 1990s: Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, and Abhijeet Bhattacharya. She has also sung extensively with younger singers in the 2000s such as Sonu Nigam, Shaan, and Babul Supriyo. Her female duets mostly have been with Alka Yagnik, Anuradha Paudwal and Sadhana Sargam.

Kavita Krishnamurthy married Dr. L. Subramaniam in Bengaluru, Karnataka on 11 November 1999. Kavita and her husband have started music institute, called the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts, in Bengaluru in 2007. In March 2013, she launched her own app which is available for free download in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.