International Indian singer Sunidhi Chauhan is coming to T&T during the 2014 Carnival season to perform at one of the largest events in Carnival, Chutney Brass. The show is scheduled for February 22 at the Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre. Randy Glasgow Productions (RGP) announced that the artiste who is among the leading singers in Bollywood, India, will be accompanied by her full performing troupe. Top local bands Dil-e-Nadan, Karma, BMERZ, Melo Bugz, 3 Veni and D Rampersad Inde Art are expected to be on the cast. RGP CEO Randy Glasgow said he decided to invest in bringing Chauhan because he knows that her coming to T&T during Carnival will first, give exposure to chutney music to a wider cross section of the international music community. He also wants to encourage a vast number of people from across the world to visit T&T to see her and hopes some may even stay for the rest of the Carnival season. Glasgow said that over the years the Chutney Brass has seen people coming in from Japan, Spain, Holland, England and Australia along with chutney fans from Guyana, Suriname, St Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, Canada and across the US. He believes that RGP will be receiving ticket bookings from Chauhan’s fans from many of these places as she is not scheduled to visit them any time soon.
Best known for her Hindi film songs in Bollywood, Chauhan has recorded songs for Urdu, Oriya, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati and Nepali films. She began to sing at four years old and was discovered by a local TV anchor. She gained recognition through a televised singing contest, Meri Awaz Suno, which she won, and made her entrance into playback singing with the Hindi film Shastra. Her breakthrough was with Ram Gopal Varma’s film Mast, in which she sang the hit song Ruki Ruki Si Zindagi and three others, including the title song. She has been nominated for 14 Filmfare Awards, winning on two occasions as well as a Filmfare RD Burman Award for New Music Talent. She has won two Star Screen Awards, two IIFA Awards and one Zee Cine Award. In an interview, while speaking of Mast, she said: “Whatever I am today, I owe to Mast. I met Sandeep Chowta through Sonu Nigam, and 15 days later, Mast was in my lap. I was only 16 then.” In February 2007, as part of its marketing campaign and launch of Windows Vista in India, Microsoft hired Chauhan to sing the Windows Vista Song Wow is Now. It features English and Hindi lyrics proclaiming the many “glamorous” features of the Windows Vista operating system. Sunidhi has sung Oriya movie songs (Abhimanyu and Most Wanted) too.
Chauhan sang for the Hindi-dubbed version of Disney’s movie, High School Musical, songs that were sung by Vanessa Anne Hudgens in the English version. Moreover, she was the singer of the English language song Reach Out at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Asian Games at Doha, Qatar. In 2008, a highly successful year for the young singer, Chauhan had some super hits including Chhaliya (Tashan), Rock Mahi, Lucky Boy, Desi Gir (Dostana), Dance Pe Chance (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi), and Race Saanson Ki (Race) that resulted in her winning the Kelvinator GR8! FLO Women Award 2009 for her contribution to music. In April 2010, Chauhan joined Anu Malik and Salim Merchant as a judge on the fifth season of the immensely popular singing talent show Indian Idol 5. She also judged the sixth season of Indian Idol alongside Asha Bhosale, Anu Malik and Salim Merchant. Due to her high-pitch voice and outstanding stage performances, Chauhan got Chevrolet GIMA (Global Indian Music Awards) of Best Live Performer—Female. Chauhan has collaborated with Indian singers such as Alka Yagnik, Shaan and Udit Narayan. She is known for her popular pairing with Sukhwinder Singh (in films such as Omkara and Aaja Nachle). She is most often paired with singer Sonu Nigam and with the female playback singer Shreya Ghoshal, whom critic’s view as a stiff competitor of Chauhan.
She had done a duet with Pakistani singer Faakhir Mehmood for the album Mantra, and has collaborated with Enrique Iglesias, on a song titled as Heartbeat (India Mix) which was included on Iglesias’ album Euphoria (Special Indian Edition). Lyricists Chauhan has worked with Jaideep Sahni, Irshad Kamil, Gulzar, Sameer, Prasoon Joshi, Swanand Kirkire, Javed Akhtar and Anand Bakshi; and the music directors include Vandemataram Srinivas, Bappi Lahiri, A R Rahman, Ilaiyaraja, Harri Jayaraj, Yuvan, Himesh Reshammiya, Anu Malik, Jatin Lalit, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Pritam Chakraborty, Rajesh Roshan, Nadeem-Shravan, Anand-Milind, Vishal-Shekhar, M M Keeravani and others. Chauhan is one of the few female singers of the present generation who has lent voice for most of the leading actresses in the Hindi entertainment industry, among those are Rekha, Madhuri Dixit, Kajol, Sridevi, Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Bipasha Basu and Priyanka Chopra among others. She was the main singer who lent voice for the comebacks of two leading Bollywood actresses, Kajol, in the movie Fanaa, and Dixit in Aaja Nachle. In 2013, Chauhan released her first single, Ab Laut Aa, with Sanjoy Deb in the Electronic Dance Music genre.