Born in Delhi, India on 25th January 1958, Sharda Krishnamurthy aka Kavita Krishnamurthy is a famous Indian playback singer, trained in classical music. Working with almost all the great music composers of the industry, Kavita’s journey has been tremendous. Let’s check how she began and evolved to become the person that she is today:
Kavita Krishnamurthy, now Kavita Subramaniam was born in a Tamil Iyer family in Delhi to T.S. Krishnamurthy, a professional with the Education and Cultural Affairs Ministry of India.
Though her mother was a huge fan of classical music, it was her aunt, Protimma Bhattacharya who enrolled her with Suruma Basu to learn Rabindra Sangeet.
Kavita started learning Hindustani classical music under the guidance of Balram Puri and at just 8 years of age, she won a gold medal at a competition for her incredible performance.
Her Bengali uncle and aunt kept her constantly busy with the music training that helped get her first Bengali playback singing offer with the legendary Lata Mangeshkar.
Kavita later moved to Mumbai with her aunt to try her luck at singing in the film industry. She is an alumnus of St. Xavier’s College where she studied BA Honors Economics where she also actively participated in the Xavier's Music Group.
During one of her performances at Malhar, Xavier’s college festival, she got a chance to meet Ranu Mukherjee, who introduced her to Hemant Kumar, Ranu’s father. Hemant gave her certain opportunities to sing with him at live performances. During one such performance, Manna Dey spotted Kavita and asked her to sing advertisement jingles.
Through her aunt’s contacts, Kavita met Jaya Chakravarthy, Hema Malini's mother, who later introduced Kavita to the music director Laxmikant. Working with Laxmikant, Kavita, started to carve her own name. One of her first works, "Ondanondu kaaladaga“ of the Kannada film Ondanondu Kaladalli was simply sublime.
There was nothing that could stop Kavita from succeeding then. She sang songs like ‘Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon’, ‘Hawa Hawaii’, and ‘Karte Hain Hum Pyaar Mr. India Se’ that proved that she was more than just an ordinary singer. She later also sang with various music composers such as R. D. Burman and Ismail Darbar.
Kavita married Dr. L. Subramaniam, a world-class violin player in the Karnataki tradition in Bangalore on November 11, 1999. They don’t have any children, though Subramaniam has four children from his previous marriage.
Kavita has been constantly loved by people across the world and has also won awards like the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor, and an IIFA for her incredible contribution.
The couple now owns a music institute called the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts and in March 2013, she launched her own app which is available for free download in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
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