The Hindi film industry which is known as Bollywood has a vast repertoire of playback singers. This article brings to light an epic list of the best Bollywood playback singers.

A playback singer is a singer who records his/her songs for movie soundtracks. Music directors pre-record songs of playback singers and use them in movies. Actors and actresses lip-sync the songs recorded by playback singers in movies. Since its early days the Hindi film industry is known for versatile playback singers. Movie fans enjoy listening to songs in the movies; however, not many fans actually realize it takes a creative effort on part of the music directors and playback singers to bring a song to life. Bollywood playback singers have to mould and modulate their voice in accordance with various factors related to the movie.

Music directors work with different playback singers, and every music director is aware of a playback singers strengths and weaknesses.

A playback singer has to adhere to the requirements of the music director in accordance with the composition of the song. Voice intonation is very important for playback singers. When playback singers are recording in a recording studio, they need to adjust the distance from the recording mike in accordance with the various vocal elements in the song. Playback singers need to grasp and understand nuances quickly to ensure their voice blends aesthetically with the lyrical and musical composition. A versatile playback singer is one that is fluent with different styles of singing. Bollywood playback singers have mesmerized global audience with their soul stirring voices. A good playback singer constantly learns while recording vocal parts at a recording studio. Talented playback singers have a wide repertoire of vocal styles and techniques. A number of Bollywood singers have a strong classical background and their strong classical influence comes forth strongly in song compositions.

Playback singers need to develop a good rapport with music directors. Ideally, a good playback singer should be one that lends his voice in accordance with the music directors needs. When music directors establish a good musical understanding with a playback singer, extracting the best out of that singer in accordance with the composition becomes easy. Over the years many Bollywood playback singers have recorded their own music albums, some of which have become a huge success with music fans in India. Solo albums of playback singers sound different from their songs in movies, that’s because the lyrical composition and musical composition in the album are entirely the creative effort of the singer. In playback singing the singer only lends his vocal parts to the song which is composed by a team, mainly music directors and lyricists.

Bollywood playback singers have to adapt and learn every time they record in a recording studio. Music directors may record a playback singer’s vocal parts in one take, or opt for different vocal takes and select the best of the lot. While the number of playback singers in the past was few, in recent years the number of playback singers has gone up significantly. In present times there is a huge demand for singers with unique voices. Music directors are constantly on the lookout for fresh new voices that add vibrant character to musical compositions. Furthermore, the movie genres in present Bollywood demand a wide repertoire of vocal parts in songs… which has lead to new breed of playback singers with a strong western influence. Bollywood has had a legacy of playback singers, and the light is getting brighter. In the future we will witness an ever-changing breed of playback singers entertaining audiences in India and the world over.

The space below showcases an epic list of Bollywood playback singers…past and present.

Greatest Bollywood Playback Singers

1. Lata Mangeshkar
2. Mohammed Rafi
3. Kishore Kumar
4. Shamshad Begum
5. Asha Bhosle
6. Mukesh
7. Kumar Sanu
8. Sonu Nigam
9. Talat Mahmood
10. KK
11. Manna Dey
12. Udit Narayan
13. Kavita Krishnamurthy
14. Shreya Ghoshal
15. Alka Yagnik
16. S.P. Balasubramaiam
17. Sukhwinder Singh
18. Sunidhi Chauhan
19. Anuradha Paudwal
20. Shankar Mahadevan
21. Sadhna Sargam
22. Hemant Kumar
23. Sujatha Mohan
24. Mahendra Kapoor
25. Suraiya
26. K.S. Chitra
27. Shaan
28. Mohit Chauhan
29. Geeta Dutt
30. Anwar Hussain
31. Babul Supriyo
32. Mahalakshmi Iyer
33. Shweta Subram
34. Abhijeet Bhattacharya
35. Zubeen Garg
36. Hariharan
37. Anuradha Sriram
38. Kailash Kher
39. Hemlata
40. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
41. Arijit Singh
42. Naresh Iyer
43. Jaspinder Narula
44. Bhupinder Singh
45. Javed Ali
46. G.M. Durrani
47. Mika Singh
48. Hema Sardesai
49. Shailendra Singh
50. Atif Aslam
51. Benny Dayal
52. Kunal Ganjawala
53. Master Saleem
54. Rekha Bhardwaj
55. Himesh Reshammiya
56. Karthik
57. Mohammed Aziz
58. Preeti Sagar
59. Ankit Tiwari
60. Madhushree
61. Clinton Cerejo
62. K.L. Saigal
63. Zohrabai Ambalewali
64. Richa Sharma
65. Vinod Rathod
66. Shabbir Kumar
67. Bela Shende
68. Roop Kumar Rathod
69. Suraj Jagan
70. Krishna Beura
71. Shilpa Rao
72. Kavita Seth
73. Monali Thakur
74. Sushma Shrestha
75. Suresh Wadkar
76. Palak Muchhal
77. Kanika Kapoor
78. Shewta Pandit
79. Tanvi Shah
80. Vaishali Samant
81. Armaan Malik
82. Harshdeep Kaur
83. Chandrani Mukherjee
84. Tochi Raina
85. Shabab Sabri
86. Alisha Chinai
87. Usha Uthup
88. Suman Kalyanpur
89. Vasundhara Das
90. Akriti Kakar
91. Shail Hada
92. Mamta Sharma
93. Pamela Jain
94. Anusha Mani
95. Caralisa Monteiro
96. Rahul Vaidya
97. Shalmali Kholgade
98. Neha Kakkar
99. Shraddha Pandit
100. Raman Mahadevan
101. Sapna Mukherjee
102. Aditi Singh Sharma
103. Nitin Mukesh
104. Tulsi Kumar
105. Shipra Goyal
106. Raja Hasan
107. Alyssa Mendonsa
108. Neeraj Shridhar
109. Antara Mitra

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