Neeraj Shridhar

Indian singer and songwriter Neeraj Shrirdhar, born June 23, 1978 in Punjab, first rose to fame as the lead singer of Bombay Vikings, a stylistically daring group that formed in Sweden in 1994 that fused the old and new by serving up modern and Europeanized versions of old Bollywood songs. In the mid 2000s he began working steadily in Bollywood as a playback singer. He had a pair of huge hits in 2006 with “Halke Halke” and “Bhagam Bhaag”, and he quickly became one of the most celebrated and hardest working figures in his field. From 2008-2011 he averaged over a song a month for Bollywood releases, occasionally writing the music and or the lyrics as well as singing them. During this time he was also nominated for four different industry awards including two different nods for Best Male Playback Singer, one in 2008 and another in 2010. This creatively fecund period was capped with a number of successful songs in 2011 including “Jhak Maar Ke” which he recorded for the film Desi Boys, as well as the release of the first Bombay Vikings album in five years. He continues to work steadily in Bollywood throughout the rest of the decade.