Monali Thakur

Thakur was born on 3 November 1985 in a Bengali Brahmin musical family in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Her father Shakti Thakur was a professional singer and actor in Bengali film industry and her sister Mehuli Thakur is a playback singer in Bengal. She has learnt hip-hop and Bharatanatyam and is also a trained salsa dancer. An alumnus of The Future Foundation School and St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, Thakur started singing in school and college competitions and performing at local functions. In 1999, she sang the first song of her career in the film Chena Chena under the musical direction of Anupam Dutta and penned by Pulak Bandyopadhyay. It was a Bengali children song titled "Choi Choi Choi Tipi Tipi". The same year, she recorded the title track of Bengali serial Shri Ramkrishna. She received the Best Playback Singer Award at Anandalok Awards for it when she was 14. She rose to popularity after placing ninth in Indian Idol 2. She had to struggle even after Indian Idol to get a strong foothold in the music industry. She got an offer from music director Pritam Chakraborty to sing two songs for the Bollywood film Race in 2008 – "Khwab Dekhe" (Sexy Lady) and "Zara Zara Touch Me". ". Monali's first large format live concert was at Powai Sarvajanin Durgotsav in 2011. As a child, she appeared in a Bengali television show, Aalokito ek Indu, in which she played the lead role Indubala. It was followed by two telefilms, including Sudeshna Roy's Phagune Agun, in which she was seen as Ruman. She made her acting debut in Raja Sen's Bengali film Krishnakanter Will, in which she played Bhromor. In 2014, she made her Bollywood debut in Nagesh Kukunoor's Lakshmi. The film is about human trafficking and child prostitution and Thakur plays a 15-year-old girl who gets trapped in it. She was seen in a guest appearance as a Kashmiri Girl in 2014 film PK. Thakur has also a played a cameo role in film Secret Superstar released in 2017. She will be seen in Abbas Tyrewala's multistarrer Mango. She also acted in a short film titled Jangle Bells along with Namit Das. The film came out on Christmas of 2015.