Udit Narayan

He was born in 1955 in Baisi, Bihar, and grew up in Nepal, where his father farmed; he sang Maithili and Nepali folk songs on Radio Nepal and came to Bombay in 1978 on a scholarship to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Rajesh Roshan gave him a song with Rafi in Unees-Bees (1980), and for the next eight years he sang small songs, second voices and Nepali films. Anand-Milind's Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) — Papa Kehte Hain won the Filmfare Award — made him a lead voice at thirty-two.

Through the 1990s he sang for Aamir Khan (Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Raja Hindustani, Lagaan), Shah Rukh Khan (Darr, Dil To Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Swades), Akshay Kumar (Mohra), Govinda and Salman Khan, for Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit, Anu Malik, Anand-Milind and A.R. Rahman. He won National Awards in 2001 (Lagaan), 2002 (Zindagi Khoobsurat Hai) and 2004 (Swades) and the Padma Shri in 2009 and Padma Bhushan in 2016; Nepal gave him its Prabal Gorkha Dakshin Bahu. His son Aditya Narayan sings and hosts television.

Udit Narayan's voice is light, bright and open, with a smile audible in it and a Nepali-Maithili lilt in the vowels that gives his Hindi a freshness. He sings with energy rather than weight, and the dance number and the wedding song suit him best; in Mitwa and the Swades songs the voice shows a quieter depth. He is one of the few singers of his generation who sounds happy.