Sunidhi Chauhan

She was born in Delhi in 1983, sang at local events from the age of four, and won the Meri Awaz Suno contest on Doordarshan in 1996; Shastra gave her a first film song at thirteen and Ram Gopal Varma's Mast, for Sandeep Chowta, the breakthrough. Fiza (Mehboob Mere, 2000), Dhoom (Dhoom Machale), Omkara (Beedi, Filmfare Award), Aaja Nachle, Tees Maar Khan (Sheila Ki Jawani), Dhoom 3 (Kamli) and a steady run with A.R. Rahman, Pritam, Vishal-Shekhar and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy followed.

She has judged Indian Idol and other television contests, performs widely, and has three Filmfare Awards; she lives in Mumbai with her husband, the composer Hitesh Sonik.

Sunidhi's voice is low, powerful and smoky, with a rock singer's attack and a dancer's sense of rhythm — the voice that ended the era of the thin, sweet heroine's song. She is also, when a composer asks, capable of great tenderness; the range from Beedi to Aa Zara is as wide as any singer's of her time.