She was born as Sharada[8] into a Tamil family in New Delhi to T. S. Krishnamurthy, an employee of the Education Ministry. She began her musical training at the insistence of her aunt Protima Bhattacharya who enrolled her to train under guru Surama Basu, who taught her Rabindra Sangeet.[9] She began her formal training in Hindustani classical music under the guidance of Balram Puri, a classical singer. At the age of eight, Kavita won a gold medal at a music competition. She won several medals participating in the Inter-Ministry Classical Competition in New Delhi in the mid-1960s.
Career
Kavita Krishnamurthy at the Bengali poetry event Panchkanya at Nehru Centre in Mumbai, 2008.
During her college days at St. Xavier College, Mumbai, she got an opportunity to record a song in the Bengali film Shriman Prithviraj in 1971 with Lata Mangeshkar as co-singer under the auspices of the music composer and singer Hemant Kumar. Although the young Sharada aspired to work in Indian Foreign Services, she moved to Bombay when she was 14 to try her luck as a playback singer in the Hindi film industry.
She is an alumnus of St. Xavier's College, Bombay from where she did her BA Honors Economics. She was very active in St. Xavier's music group. During the annual college festival (Malhar), she met Ranu Mukherjee, the daughter of Hemant Kumar. Ranu took the initiative of reintroducing Kavita to her father,[8] who began using her as a singer during his live performances. At one such performance, playback singer Manna Dey spotted her and employed her to sing advertisement jingles. Through her aunt's contacts, she met Jaya Chakravarthy, the mother of actress Hema Malini,[8] who later introduced Kavita to the music director Laxmikant (one of the composer duo Laxmikant–Pyarelal) in late 1976. A recent interview covers a pretty good summary of her musical journey.[10]
Playback singing
She recorded her first song under Vilayat Khan's composition in Kadambari (1976). The song was entitled Aayega Aanewala (a remake of Mahal's (1949), the superhit song sung by Lata Mangeshkar) and was picturised on Shabana Azmi.[11] Laxmikant gave her an opportunity to work as a dubbing artist. Initially, she recorded songs and cut demos of songs intended for singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.
However she got her first own song, recorded in 1977 in Kannada, "Ondanondu kaaladaga" in the film Ondanondu Kaladalli (Once upon a time) directed by Girish Karnad. The song was penned by the Jnanpit awardee Chandrashekhara Kambara and the music by Bhaskar Chandavarkar. Being the only song in the entire movie, "Ondanondu kaladaga" with its folk touch, became a hit and earned fame for Kavita Krishnamurti. Then she went on to sing many Kannada-language songs.
In 1980, she sang "Kaahe Ko Byaahi" for the film Maang Bharo Sajana, which featured her singing in her own voice, although the song was dropped from the final cut of the film. In 1985, her career took off with her first major hit, "Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon" from the Hindi film Pyaar Jhukta Nahin (1985). Following the success of the song, it opened up opportunities for her beyond the Laxmikant–Pyarelal camp. However, "Hawa Hawai" and "Karte Hai Hum Pyaar Mr. India Se", two popular songs from the equally popular movie Mr. India (1987) - Karte Hain Hum Pyaar Mr. India se, proved to be a turning point in her career. The songs were composed by music composers Laxmikant–Pyarelal, the latter being a duet with Kishore Kumar and lip-synced on screen by an actress Sridevi. Her collaboration with Laxmikant–Pyarelal produced several hits. Hawa Hawai, which launched her into stardom was dubbed to be recorded by Asha Bhosle, however later producer decided to keep her version despite her mistake in the song.
Although primarily a playback singer, Kavita has sung with orchestras as a soloist; she has collaborated with Western artists from jazz, pop and classical fields. She has lent her voice for many albums. As a playback singer, Kavita has performed throughout India. In 2014, she also sang "Koi Chahat Koi Hasrat" for the album Women's Day Special: Spreading Melodies Everywhere. It was composed by Nayab Raja and penned by Dipti Mishra.
In Kannada
Kavita's playback singing career started with Kannada-language films. Her first film song was in the Kannada film Ondanondu kaladalli (1978) with the same title. She sang many hit songs in Kannada since then.[citation needed] Songs such as "Bareyada mounada Kavithe" (Sparsha), "Hoove Hoove" (H2O), "Endo Kanda kanasu" (Lankesh Patrike), "O Malle o dumbi" ('Naga Devate'), "Artha madkolo" (Shishya), "Kaveri Kaveri" (Raja Huli), and many more hit songs made her a household name in Karnataka.
Pop and devotional singing
Due to her participation in fusion and pop music, Kavita has lent her voice to several pop and devotional albums. The most prominent ones being:
Subramaniam has four children from his previous marriage. His eldest daughter Gingger Shankar is a singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, while his second eldest, Bindu Subramaniam is a law graduate and singer-songwriter.[13] Narayana is a doctor, while the youngest, Ambi Subramaniam, is an accomplished violinist.[14]
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