Kavita Seth (September 14, 1970) is an Indian playback singer, mostly known for her contributions to the Hindi film industry. She also performs Ghazals and Sufi music with Karwaan Group. Born in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, she began performing devotional music and folk songs in local temples and concerts. After her marriage, she relocated to Delhi and started singing on public radio and TV, while also studying music at the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and Hindi literature at the University of Delhi. Following one of her performances at Muzzaffar Ali’s International Sufi Festival, director Satish Kaushik invited her to sing the track “Zindagi ko Maula” on his film Vaada (2005). She then relocated to Mumbai and featured in Anurag Basu’s 2006 romantic thriller Gangster with the song “Mujhe Mat Roko.” In 2008, Kavita Seth released the album Sufiana, entirely composed of couples by Sufi poet and mystic Rumi. That year, she also composed original music for N. Chandra’s Yeh Mera India. In 2010, her Sufi rendition of the classic “Gunja Sa Koi Iktara,” included in the box office hit Wake Up Sid (2009), helped her win the Best Female Playback Singer category at the Filmfare Awards and Best Female Playback at the Star Screen Awards. Subsequently, Kavita Seth resumed her solo career with the albums Khuda Wohi Hai (2011), Trance With Khusrow (2014), and Lagan Laagi Re (2021), and also collaborated with her son, composer Kanishk Seth, on a modern rendition of the thumri “Rangi Saari” that peaked at Number 67 on the Indian Top 100 in 2021.
