Abhijeet Bhattacharya (Singer)

Abhijeet Bhattacharya (born 30 October 1958), professionally known as Abhijeet, is an Indian playback singer who primarily sings in the Hindi film industry. As well as Hindi, he has sung in his native language Bengali and in other languages including Marathi, Nepali, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, and Odia, in both West Bengal and Bangladesh. He has sung 6034 songs in more than 1000 films.
Some of his iconic tracks feature in BBC's "Top 40 Bollywood Soundtracks of all time".

Personal life

Abhijeet was born in Uttar Pradesh to a Kanpur-based Bengali Brahmin family the youngest of four to news editor Dheerendranath Bhattacharya and his wife Kamla Bhattacharya in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He graduated in commerce (B.Com.) from Christ Church College, Kanpur in 1977. He started singing on stage from 1970. He left home in 1981 to pursue a career in singing in Bollywood.

Film career

He was launched by R. D. Burman in a Bengali film with a duet song with Asha Bhosle.He did stage shows as a singer with R. D. Burman in his starting career. He has been deeply influenced by the singer Kishore Kumar.

Movies he sang in 90's include '' Baadshah'', '' Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'', '' Rakshak'', ''Darr'', '' Josh'', '' Dhadkan'', '' Raaz'', '' Pyar To Hona Hi Tha'', '' Khoobsurat'', '' Na Tum Jano Na Hum'', '' Kaho Na Pyar Hai'', ''Tum Bin'', '' Dillagi'', '' Jodi No. 1''. He was in '' Khiladi'', '' Mr. and Mrs. Khiladi'', ''Khiladi 420'', ''Main Khiladi Tu Anari'', '' Sabse Bada Khiladi'', and '' Dhadkan''.

His 2000s career included Red Chillies Entertainment's first film Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, Dhadkan, Josh, Asoka. Following with Dhoom's ''Dilbara'' ,Gangster's ''Lamha Lamha'' with Sunidhi Chauhan, Om Shanti Om's ''Dhoom Tana Na'' with Shreya Ghoshal.
Later he sang for Ranbir Kapoor in film Besharam. The song was ''Dil ka jo haal hai'' with Shreya Ghoshal.
In May 2019, Abhijeet Released ''Chakde Fatte'' which is the Cricket World Cup Song for 2019. The song was well appreciated by listeners. Many of his iconic songs are now being remade by new age composers, such as ''Tan Tana Tan '' from Judwaa 2, ''Ole Ole'' from Jawaani Jaaneman where the actor was himself Saif Ali Khan, ''Mai Khiladi Tu Anadi'' from Selfiee, ''Husnn Hai Suhana'' from Coolie No. 1, ''Sheher Ki Ladki '' from Khandaani Shafakhana and many more in the list. His Salman Khan duo famous song ''Chunnri Chunnri'' was recreated by famous South Korea band BTS in 2020 and it became very famous in reels from Instagram. In 2020 his first released song came for the Movie Shukranu, a 70s feel like song "Khwaab hai ya haqeqaat" duet with Indian Idol fame Krishnakali Saha released from Zee Music Company. In September 2021 Abhijeet is judged 'Sangeet er Moha Juddho', a reality show airing on Colours Bangla Channel along with other judges Jeet Ganguli, Ustad Rashid Khan.In 2024 he sang in two commercially hit films 'Shaastri' & 'Khadaan' from Tollywood (Bengali).His song "Haaye Re Biye" was on trending.

Non film music

In his early career he recorded an album with tribute songs to Kishore Kumar. The name of the album was ''A Tribute To Kishore Kumar'', distributed by Gulshan Kumar and T-Series. His show was aired on Doordarshan was a massive famous among Indian homes which was a tribute to the legend Kishore Kumar. Playback singer Anuradha Paudwal also recorded duets opposite Abhijeet in some duet songs.

He released the ''Yaadein'' series where he sang many of the songs of Kishore Kumar along with singers Kumar Sanu and Vinod Rathod.

He has recorded many non-film pop music Albums. He released two albums, Main Deewana Hoon and Tapori No.1 in the early 1990s.He with other singers launched ''Dil Vil Pyar Vyar'' as a tribute to R. D. Burman and his compositions to Kishore Kumar. Other singers contributed including Kumar Sanu, Hariharan, Shaan and Kavita Krishnamurti. Later he launched Aashiqui.In early 2000s Abhijeet Bhattacharya released an album ''Salute To Legends'' singing the iconic songs of singers Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh distributed by T-Series. In the 2000s he released pop albums like, Bandhan (Bengali), Tere Bina in (2003), Lamahe(2006) and Mai Deewana Hoo (2016). Tere Bina opened the career of Divya Khosla Kumar with the song ''Kabhi yaadon mein Aao''.

Social media presence

On 6 May 2015, when sessions court in Mumbai sentenced actor Salman Khan to five years in jail in connection with the 2002 hit-and-run case, Abhijeet came out in support of Salman by tweeting "Roads are meant for cars and dogs, not for people sleeping on them." This raised anger among several Twitter users as well as in popular media for making insensitive remarks as well as opening himself to criticism by members of media or others that Abhijeet is equating homeless people with dogs.

Abhijeet said to a news channel, "Nobody should die on the roads as dogs." He further stated that the death of the poor man was a loss to his family members and by not sleeping on the roads such deaths can be and should be avoided. He said and so did other people on the same news channel program that sleeping on the roads/pavements is dangerous as the roads are extremely busy. Many members of the public and media want the government to do more to help avoid such preventable incidents. A large number of people sleep overnight on the roads in cities in India due to the lack of means to buy or rent a house while they eke out a living doing menial labor.

Abhijeet Bhattacharya's Twitter account (@abhijeetsinger) was suspended on 23 May 2017, after he posted a series of 'offensive tweets', especially against women. Sonu Nigam also deleted his account after Abhijeet's account was suspended.

On 29 May, Abhijeet re-joined Twitter with a new account(@singerabhijeet). But by evening, the new account was also suspended.

Reality Shows

Abhijeet was on the panel of judges of reality show ''Ek Se Badhkar Ek'' with choreographer Ahmed Khan anchor was Ravi Kishan in 2008 on Zee TV.The show was based on bringing several talents together.
Abhijeet was on the panel of judges of ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs '' in 2009 with music director, singer Bappi Lahiri and playback singer Alka Yagnik on Zee TV and anchor was Shaan.
Abhijeet then was on judges panel with his Baaghi co-singer Kavita Krishnamurti on Zee Bangla TV for ''Saregamapa Lil Champs Bangla'' 2010.The reality show was based on the bringing talented singer kids from districts of WB.

His comeback as a judge was in 2020 with reality show ''SuperSinger'' on Star Jalsha. Then with ''Sangeeter Mahayuddho'' in 2021 on Colors Bangla channel.The other judges included singer Ustad Rashid Khan and Aashiqui 2 composer Jeet Ganguly.He attended as special guests in Indian Idol 2022, Saregamapa Zee TV on 2023.Recently attended Indian Idol 2024 on Sony TV in his honor of contribution in the Film Industry.

Comebacks

He sang for actor Ranbir Kapoor in commercially hit film Besharam in 2013.The film was directed by Abhinav Kashyap. The song was "Dil Ka Jo Haal Hai" with Shreya Ghoshal.The song was composed by Lalit Pandit.The song went to big hit of that year.
Abhijeet Bhattacharya staged a remarkable comeback with a 90s-style song "Thame dil ko" in Panchayat (TV series) ''Season 3'' aired on Amazon Prime Video ,composed by Lalit from renowned duo Jatin-Lalit.

Discography

As a singer

;Other language songs

Accolades

;Honours
*MTV ASIA Award (2004)
* Uttar Pradesh Gaurav Samman
*Yash Bharati Samman (2013)
*Sangeet Maha Samman (2015)
*Vishesh Shamman Award by West Bengal Government (2017)
*Vikramaditya Award (2018)
*Banga Bibhushan (2022)

;Filmfare Awards
;
Win

Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer

* Screen Award for Best Male Playback in 1998 for "Main Koi Aisa Geet" from '' Yes Boss''
* Global Indian Film Awards for Best Male Playback for "Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha" in 2004 from ''Main Hoon Na''

Nomination

1995 – Best Male Playback Singer for "Wada Raha Sanam" from ('' Khiladi'')

1995 – Best Male Playback Singer for "Ole Ole" from (''Yeh Dillagi'')

1997 – Best Male Playback Singer for "Yeh Teri Aankhen Jhuki Jhuki" from ('' Fareb'')

2004 – Best Male Playback Singer for "Suno Na" from ('' Chalte Chalte'')

References

External links

*

Abhijeet Bhattacharya Rediff

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharya, Abhijeet
Living people
Bengali singers
Indian male playback singers
Indian male singers
Entertainers from Kanpur
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa participants
Bollywood playback singers
Ramakrishna Mission schools alumni
1958 births
Filmfare Awards winners
Screen Awards winners