Gaurav Dagaonkar
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Gaurav Dagaonkar is an Indian singer, music director and a music technology entrepreneur, most notably as the co-founder and CEO of music licensing platform Hoopr and Songfest. He has served as a music director for various movies, been an independent musician, and has sung songs in multiple languages for movies across India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.


Early life

Dagaonkar was born in Mumbai and obtained an engineering degree in information technology from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College. He then secured admission at IIM Ahmedabad in 2004. As part of his summer internship at IIMA, Dagaonkar interned with Times Music, a music company based in Mumbai. Upon graduation in 2006, Dagaonkar opted out of placements, to opt for a career in music. His demo album was released by Infosys Chairman Mr. Narayana Murthy in 2006. After this, he played live gigs opening for artists such as
Mohit Chauhan Mohit Chauhan (born 11 March 1966) is an Indian playback singer, known for his work in Hindi films. He was a part of the Silk Route (band), Silk Route band. Chauhan has received two Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer and three Zee Ci ...
,
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy () is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and English. Amongst ...
, and
Junoon (band) Junoon ( ) is a Pakistani sufi rock band from Lahore, Punjab (Pakistani province), Punjab, Pakistan, and Tappan, New York, formed in 1990. The band is directed by founder, lead guitarist and songwriter, Salman Ahmad, who was soon joined by key ...
, at college festivals. Within two years, in February 2008, he was signed to Universal Music, India and put out a pop album titled College Days.


Music career


Music director

In 2012, Dagaonkar made his debut as music director in Bollywood with the song ‘Soniye’, sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for the movie ‘Will You Marry Me’. His second movie ‘Lanka’ starring Manoj Bajpai also released in the same year. Dagaonkar composed two songs for the movie, sung by KK and Shreya Ghoshal. Gaurav composed an item number called Kaafirana in the film " Joker", directed by
Shirish Kunder Shirish Kunder (born 24 May 1973) is an Indian filmmaker and film editor. After working as an film editor on 21 films starting with ''Champion'' (2000), Kunder made his screenwriting and directorial debut with '' Jaan-E-Mann'' (2006). He is ...
, starring
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and
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. The song was sung by
Sunidhi Chauhan Sunidhi Chauhan (pronounced ; born Nidhi Chauhan, 14 August 1983) is an Indian playback singer. Known for her Bold vocal range, she has recorded songs for films in several Indian languages and List of awards and nominations received by Sunidhi ...
and picturized on
Chitrangada Singh Chitrangda Singh (born 30 August, 1976) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Hindi films. She made her acting debut with the crime drama '' Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi'' (2005), which earned her the Bollywood Movie Award for Best Female De ...
. In the same year, Dagaonkar also composed songs in the movie ‘Heartless’, starring Adhyayan Suman. Dagaonkar composed 5 songs in the movie, which were sung by Arijit Singh, KK, Mohit Chauhan, Ash King and Shekhar Suman. The song ‘Main Dhoondhne Ko Zamaane Mein’, sung by Arijit Singh, achieved notable success. In 2016, he composed the soundtrack for the Marathi film One Way Ticket which earned him nominations for Best Music Director and Best Music Album at the Radio Mirchi Awards and Zee Gaurav Awards. The song "Mast Malanga" from the film received Best Upcoming Playback Singer award at the Radio Mirchi Awards. Dagaonkar also composed and produced ''The Chamiya Song'', a vibrant wedding track featuring West Indies cricketer Dwayne Bravo and Indian dancer Shakti Mohan. The track was well-received for its energetic beats and catchy melody, further showcasing Dagaonkar’s versatility as a music producer. In 2023, he composed the title track music for the film '''Saali Mohabbat, produced by Manish Malhotra and starring Tisca Chopra.


Synchronicity

Gaurav is the lead vocalist and frontman of the group 'Synchronicity'. Synchronicity is also the name of the series started by Gaurav in which he performs mashups of popular Bollywood, Nepali and Western songs. The first mashup to be recorded and shot as a music video in this series was ‘Tujhe Bhula Diya / Hello.’ The video has had over 500,000 hits on YouTube. Subsequently, two more tracks, ‘Yara Sili Sili / Careless Whisper’ and ‘Pee Loon / You Sang To Me’ were released to a great response. The band Synchronicity was subsequently formed with Dagaonkar and Arunima Bhattacharya as the permanent singers along with many guests such as
Neeti Mohan Neeti Mohan Sharma (born 18 November 1979) is an Indian singer. She sings mainly in Hindi language, Hindi films, but has also sung in Marathi language, Marathi, Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali language, Bengali, ...
,
Shalmali Kholgade Shalmali Kholgade is an Indian playback singer who predominantly sings for Bollywood films. In addition to Hindi, she has also sung in other Indian languages such as Marathi language, Marathi, Bengali language, Bengali, Telugu language, Telugu, ...
, Rahul Saxena, Natalie De Luccio, Ustad Sawan Khan, Thomson Andrews, and Vidhi Sharma in live shows.


As a performing artist

As a live performer, Gaurav plays with a four-piece band and has performed at some of the biggest festivals in India such as Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay), Chaos (IIM Ahmedabad), Backwaters (IIM Kozhikode). He has shared the stage with renowned artists and bands from India and Pakistan such as Junoon,
Silk Route The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
,
Mohit Chauhan Mohit Chauhan (born 11 March 1966) is an Indian playback singer, known for his work in Hindi films. He was a part of the Silk Route (band), Silk Route band. Chauhan has received two Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer and three Zee Ci ...
,
Parikrama Parikrama or Pradakshina is clockwise circumambulation of sacred entities, and the path along which this is performed, as practiced in the Indian religions, Indic religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In Buddhism, it refers only ...
, Rahul Sharma, etc. He is one of the official brand ambassadors of Gibson guitars in India. Gaurav has been featured amongst the "Faces of the Future" by
India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...
.


Entrepreneur

Dagaonkar along with Meghna Mittal launched Songfest in 2017 and offered viral marketing solutions to brands and video creators in collaboration with some popular artists. They have created branded music content for brands such as Nestle, Mars-Wrigley, Hike Sticker Chat, ALT Balaji, Magicpin, etc. and have worked with artists such as Shaan, Monali Thakur, Nikhil D'souza, etc. Their DOUBLEMINT Freshtake campaign won the ET Brand Equity Shark Award for Best Brand Integration, while ‘Aadatein’ won the Brandwagon Ace Award for Best Influencer Marketing. They also received the afaqs! Digies award for Magicpin (The Bread Ad , Asli Savings campaign) for Best Viral Video and Best Use of Viral Marketing. He also is the CEO of Hoopr, a music licensing platform that provides copyright-safe music for creators and businesses. The firm secured $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts at the end of 2021. Hoopr launched Hoopr Brand Solutions to enhance music-driven marketing and has played a role in introducing new music collaborations, including collaborations with Himalaya Wellness, '''Too Yumm''!' and Bingo Tedhe Medhe''' integrating music with advertising. ----


Discography


As a playback singer


As a Music Director


Personal life

Gaurav Dagaonkar married Arunima Bhattacharya, a singer, in 2014. The couple resides in Mumbai with their daughter, Ara. Apart from his musical & entrepreneurial career, Gaurav enjoys watching movies and takes an active role in mentoring upcoming music creators.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dagaonkar, Gaurav Living people Indian male singer-songwriters Indian singer-songwriters Nepali-language singers from India 1982 births Singers from Mumbai