Shantanu Mukherjee

Shantanu Mukherjee (born 30 September 1972), popularly known as Shaan, is an Indian playback singer, composer, live perfomer ,actor and television personality. He has recorded songs for films and albums in various Indian languages and has established himself as one of the highest-paid and best-established playback singers of Indian cinema.

Shaan hosted the shows ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa'', ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs'', '' Star Voice of India'' and '' STAR Voice of India 2''. In '' Music Ka Maha Muqabla'', his team, ''Shaan's Strikers'', finished as the runners up to Shankar Mahadevan's team. He appeared as a judge in ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs'' 2014–2015 and ''The Voice India Kids 2016''. In 2015 and 2016, Shaan was the winning coach in each of the first two seasons of ''The Voice''. In 2016, in ''The Voice India Kids'', he was the coach of the runner-up contestant. His sister Sagarika is also a singer.

Early life

Shaan was born on 30 September 1972 in Bombay in a Bengali family. His grandfather was Jahar Mukherjee, a well known lyricist, his father late Manas Mukherjee, was a music director and his sister Sagarika is a singer as well. He grew up in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Early years and music albums

Shaan began his career singing jingles for advertisements. After giving it up for a brief period, he returned and, along with jingles, began to sing remixes and cover versions.

Shaan and his sister signed up with Magnasound recording company and recorded a few successful albums, including the hit album ''Naujawan'' followed by ''Q-Funk''.

He entered the pop scene with sister ''Sagarika'', singing Biddu's melodies and doing re-mixes. Then came ''Roop Tera Mastana'', a remix album of R.D. Burman's songs, that brought them further into the limelight. Later, Shaan launched ''Love-Ology'' after this.

In 1999, He wrote the lyrics of the ballad "Bhool Ja" on his album ''Tanha Dil'', which appeared in the charts within days of its release and was popular on radio. In 2000, he sang a superhit song "Tanha Dil Tanha Safar". This song is also used in his sister's album ''Mere Liye'' in 2001.

In 2002, he won the MTV Asia Award for Favorite Artist India for best solo album for his album ''Tanha Dil''. One year later, Shaan launched his album ''Aksar'', which was successful and contained songs featuring international stars such as Blue, Melanie C and Samira Said. For both the albums ''Tanha Dil'' and ''Aksar'', Shaan sang, composed and wrote the lyrics of all the songs, except the title track "Tanha Dil", which was composed by Ram Sampath.

He released ''Tomar Aakash'' in 2004, a Bengali album, along with his sister and featuring his father's unreleased songs. He also plans to release an album remaking his father's compositions with his sister in Hindi. He recently sang one of his father's compositions on sets of STAR Plus's ''Music Ka Maha Muqqabla''.

In 2006, he released a song with MLTR, "Take me to your heart". The song appears on his album ''Tishnagi'', which is produced by Ranjit Barot and engineered by Ashish Manchanda. The song "Shuruaat" on his album ''Tishnagi'' was made into a music video to promote the film, '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''.

Apart from studio albums, he also sang several other albums songs such as ''Channel Hits'', ''Bollywood Sensation 2'', ''Club Class'', ''A Reason To Smile'', ''The Ultimate Party Album'', ''Maa'' (his sister's album), ''Mon'', ''Akou Mon'', ''Mere Liye'' (his sister's album), ''Bodo Asha Kore'', ''Hoyoth Prem'', ''Khoji Tare'', ''Notes from a peculiar time in Space'' etc.

Playback singing

Apart from singing on his own albums, Shaan has provided the voice for many of Bollywood's leading actors. He made his debut as a playback singer where he sang a single line song "Kitni Hai Pyari Pyari" along with his younger sister in the film Parinda when he was only seventeen. The film was successful and established himself as one of the leading playback singers in Bollywood.

Shaan sang, composed the music and wrote the lyrics of his songs on his albums ''Loveology'', ''Tanha Dil'', ''Aksar'' and ''Tishnagi'', and has also composed music for many TV serials, winning the "Best TV music director award". Shaan also gives advice on music and lyrics to the music directors for whom he sings.

He has recently recorded a playback for an upcoming Bengali feature film ''Network'' which is composed by Dabbu.

Musical show hosting

Shaan hosted the television show ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa'' on Zee TV between the years 2000–2006, which won the Music Programme of the Year award at the Indian Telly Awards in 2003. At the same awards, Shaan won Best TV Music Director, for creating the music of the Zee TV show, ''Lipstick'', for his friend Goldie Behl. He also appeared as the guest in the first episode of the new show ''Antakshari: The Great Challenge'' which aired on 9 February 2007 on Star One.

Shaan is now the host of a music show called '' Star Voice of India'' (SVOI) which airs on Star Plus. He was offered the role of host for ''Star Voice of India Chote Ustaad'', but opted out to spend time with his family. However, he returned to host the next season of '' Star Voice of India''.

In June 2015, Shaan was introduced as a coach in the first season of the singing-based reality TV show ''The Voice'', appearing with a swollen face caused by an exercising accident. He was the coach of Pawandeep Rajan, the eventual winner. In 2016, in season 2, he again was the winning coach, of contestant Farhan Sabir. In 2016, in ''The Voice India Kids'', he was the coach of the runner-up contestant.

International acclaim and other projects

Shaan is one of the few Indian singers who have collaborated with international singers. After working with ''blue'' for the song "One Love" and singing the theme song ("Shuruaat") for the movie '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', Shaan collaborated with '' Michael Learns to Rock'' for his album ''Tishnagi''. Shaan also composed six of the album's nine tracks and penned most of the songs, excluding the number ''Take Me To Your Heart'' with '' Michael Learns to Rock''. The video of this number has been popular too.

Shaan has sung the title songs for many TV shows, including the title song for the comedy show ''Khichdi'', which airs on Star Plus. He also sang the title song for ''Shakuntala'', which airs on Star One.

Along with singing, Shaan has acted in the movie '' Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence'', also starring Raveena Tandon. His songs have appeared in the movies, ''Zameen'' and ''Hungama''.

Shaan often performs for Pro Shows which are conducted as a part of the cultural festivals of various colleges. Among the prominent festivals where he has performed live recently are Moksha at NSIT (New Delhi), PULSE at AIIMS (New Delhi), Recstacy at NIT Durgapur, Spring Fest at IIT Kharagpur, REBECA at IIEST Shibpur, Mood Indigo at IIT Bombay, Ragam at NIT Calicut, Anakronos at Techno India, Alcheringa at IIT Guwahati, Riviera (festival) at VIT University and Crossroads at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) (New Delhi). Recently he has performed live in Fun@Work Oracle Event at Bangalore. Previously he had performed in an IBM event "Imprint 2008, Hyderabad" for IBM GBS exclusively.

He said in an interview that music directors are avoiding established singers to bring some novelty into the playback singing, while compromising on the quality. Auto tuning software ensures that even a rough voice can sound good during the final recording and release of the song.

Shaan has been a judge on many talent shows. Shaan is a team captain, judge and mentor on STAR Plus's ''Music Ka Maha Muqqabla'' for the team Shaan's Strikers. His team won the Runner-up prize, amounting to Rs. 2.5 million (Rs. 2.5 million) in this game show on 20 March 2010, losing to Shanker Mahadevan and his team, with 43.1 points to 46.3 points.

Shaan performed live alongside Atif Aslam, Malaika Arora Khan and Bipasha Basu for the first time in a series of concerts in Birmingham and London in the summer of 2012.

Shaan has also been one of the 4 finalists of the dance show ''Jhalak Dikhla Jaa'' 2013.

Discography

Filmography

Films

Television

Advisor

Currently, he is a member of the Board of Advisors of India's International Movement to Unite Nations (I.I.M.U.N.).

Awards

Shaan's song "Chand Sifarish" (from the movie '' Fanaa'') and "Jab Se Tere Naina" (from ''Saawariya'') won the Filmfare Best Male Playback Award and the Zee Cine Award Best Playback Singer - Male, in addition to receiving several other nominations. In 2002, he won the MTV Asia Music Award for best solo album for his album ''Tanha Dil.'' Following are the list of awards and nominations in different categories.

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See also

* List of Indian playback singers

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaan
1972 births
Assamese playback singers
Assamese-language singers
Bengali Hindus
Bengali singers
Indian male singer-songwriters
Indian male playback singers
Indian male pop singers
Bollywood playback singers
Bengali playback singers
Hindi-language singers
Kannada playback singers
Konkani-language singers
Odia playback singers
Living people
People from Madhya Pradesh
Performers of Hindu music
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa participants
Filmfare Awards winners
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Indian folk-pop singers
21st-century Indian male singers
21st-century Indian singers
Singers from Mumbai
21st-century Indian male classical singers