Mahalakshmi Iyer is an Indian playback singer, best known for her

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

, Assamese and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

songs. She has sung in many other Indian languages as well, including

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Odia,

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

and

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

Career

Playback singing

Mahalakshmi made her playback debut with the film ''

Dus ''Dus'' () is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Anubhav Sinha, based on the lives of seven fictional SIT (Indian Special Investigation) Team officers. It stars Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan, Zayed Kha ...

'' in 1997'','' but the film never completed and released due to the sudden passing of the film's director. The album however was released in 1999 as a tribute. She sang the track ''Ae Ajnabee'' with

Udit Narayan Udit is an Indian masculine given name that may refer to: *Udit Narayan, Bollywood playback singer *Udit Narayan (politician) (born 1960), Fijian politician of Indian descent *Udit Narayan Singh (1770–1835), Indian monarch *Udit Patel (born 1984 ...

for

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six ...

's '' Dil Se..'' which was her first release as a playback singer and considered to be her debut. Mahalakshmi continued singing for Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and A.R. Rahman in many films which followed. Since then she has also sung many serials,

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

s, and original albums. She was part of several successful soundtracks such as '' Mission Kashmir'', '' Yaadein'' and '' Saathiya'' and worked with some of the biggest music composers like

, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy,

Vishal–Shekhar Vishal–Shekhar are an Indian music composer, production, singing and songwriting duo consisting of Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani from Mumbai. Known predominantly for their work as music composers in Hindi cinema, Vishal–Shekhar have a ...

Jatin–Lalit Jatin–Lalit are an Indian film music director duo consisting of Jatin Pandit and his brother Lalit Pandit. They have written the widely popular scores for films such as ''Yaara Dildara'', ''Khiladi (1992 film), Khiladi'', ''Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikan ...

and more. She has sung for many

Yash Raj Films Yash Raj Films (YRF) is an Indian film production and distribution company founded by veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra in 1970. It mainly produces and distributes Hindi and Punjabi films. The company has grown to be one of the largest film studios ...

' biggest hits like ''

Dhoom 2 ''Dhoom 2'' (trans. Blast 2) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Sanjay Gadhvi and written by Vijay Krishna Acharya, based on a story by producer Aditya Chopra, who backed the film at an estimated budget of unde ...

'', ''

Bunty Aur Babli ''Bunty Aur Babli'' () is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language crime comedy film directed by Shaad Ali and written by Jaideep Sahni, based on a story by Aditya Chopra, who serves as producer under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Abhishek Ba ...

'', ''

Salaam Namaste ''Salaam Namaste'' () is a 2005 Indian romantic comedy film, directed by first-time director Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta in their fo ...

'', '' Fanaa'', ''

Ta Ra Rum Pum ''Ta Ra Rum Pum'' is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language sports drama film directed by Siddharth Anand from a screenplay penned by Habib Faisal. It stars Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Angelina Idnani, Ali Haji and Javed Jaffrey in lead roles. In t ...

'' and ''

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom ''Jhoom Barabar Jhoom'' () is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic comedy film directed by Shaad Ali and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films. Based on a story by Ali and a script by Habib Faisal, the film stars Abhishek B ...

''. She was known for her performances in songs like "Kabhi Sham Dhale" from '' Sur – The Melody of Life'' (2002), "Har Taraf" from '' Rishtey'' (2002) and for hit songs like "Chup Chup Ke" from ''

'' (2005), "Aaj Ki Raat" from '' Don: The Chase Begins Again'' (2006) and "Bol Na Halke Halke" from ''

''. She sang on the Academy Award-winning song " Jai Ho" for

in the film ''

Slumdog Millionaire ''Slumdog Millionaire'' is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel '' Q & A'' (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Pa ...

'' (2008). Specifically, she sang the

words between the short "Jai Ho" chants, as well as portions of the verses (most of which were sung by Sukhwinder Singh). In the past, she rendered background vocal to the very famous Ghazal of

Pankaj Udhas Pankaj Udhas (born 17 May 1951) is an Indian ghazal and playback singer. He started his career with a release of a ghazal album titled ''Aahat'' in 1980 and subsequently recorded many hits like ''Mukarar'' in 1981, ''Tarrannum'' in 1982, ''Mehf ...

named Aur Ahistaa. She has also rendered her voice to many private album remixes notably ''Aaja Piya Tohe Pyar'' and ''Baahon Mein Chali Aao'', which was originally rendered by the legendary

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her cont ...

Television songs

In 2013, Mahalakshmi Iyer sang a song with Udit Narayan titled "Ek dil banaaya, phir pyar basaaya", penned by Raghvendra Singh music direction of Navin Manish for Rajshri 's TV show

Jhilmil Sitaaron Ka Aangan Hoga ''Jhilmil Sitaaron Ka Aangan Hoga'' is an Indian soap opera about a poor boy, Akash, and a rich girl, Angana, who fall in love and get married. Due to family tradition, Akash is forced to be a Gharjamai, ghar jamai, or live-in son-in-law in An ...

on Sahara One.

Film songs

Assamese songs

Tamil songs

Telugu

Non-film songs

Awards and honors

* Grammy Award as Vocalist on the recording of "''Jai Ho"'' from the film "Slumdog Millionaire" *Alpha award for Best Playback for ''Adhar'' *''Maharashtra Kala Niketan'' Award for ''Suna Yeti Gharaat'' * 2016 Filmfare nomination for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil – "Un Mele Oru Kannu" (

Rajini Murugan ''Rajinimurugan'' is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language masala film written and directed by Ponram, and produced by director N. Lingusamy and N. Subash Chandra Bose under the banner Thirrupathi Brothers. This is the second directorial venture of P ...

) * Best Play Back Singer Maharashtra State Award for ''Datle Dhuke'' (Time Pass)
Best playback singer - Orissa State Award
for ''Dheu Kere Kule (From the film "Mimamsa")''

References

External links

*

OpenBeast interview

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iyer, Mahalakshmi Assamese playback singers Bollywood playback singers Indian women playback singers Indian women pop singers Kannada playback singers Living people Marathi-language singers Marathi playback singers Performers of Hindu music Place of birth missing (living people) Singers from Mumbai Tamil playback singers Women musicians from Maharashtra 1970 births 20th-century births 20th-century Indian women singers 20th-century Indian singers 21st-century Indian women singers 21st-century Indian singers