Anuradha Paudwal

Anuradha Paudwal (October 27, 1954) is an award-winning Indian playback singer who is mostly associated with the Bollywood film industry. Like many of her colleagues, she is also a singer of devotional songs known as bhajans and has recorded in several languages, including Marathi, Tamil, Odia, Nepali, Bengali, and Kannada. Born in the city of Karwar, she made her first appearance on the soundtrack for the 1973 Hindi film Abhiman, composed by the legendary S. D. Burman. Her proper debut as a playback singer arrived in 1976 on the film Aap Beeti, scored by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Anuradha Paudwal would collaborate extensively with the songwriting duo in the following years, namely on her breakthrough performance on the soundtrack for the movie Hero (1983). During the 90s, she won Best Female Playback four times and featured on the box office hit Major Saab (1998) with the track “Pyar Kiya To Nibhana.” At the peak of her fame, Anuradha Paudwal decided to retire from the music business and focus solely on religious music. In 2017, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.