Abhijeet was born as Abhijeet Bhattacharya, in a middle-class Bengali
family from Kanpur (UP). His parents were against his singing but
Abhijeet went against his parent's wishes to become a singer. In Kanpur
his family members were all musical, and educated professionals. Money
was never a contextual concern. In Kanpur education and culture was all
his family courted, leisure was driving around the tree-lined lanes on
bicycles. Confident and feted for his success, today the star-singer
lives in a Bollywood dream bungalow (named Sunny vistas) of white
façade and red-tiled roof.
He was the apple of the community eye for his singing talents and
Pampered and cosseted by a fond family, Abhijeet was the youngest of
four brothers. He came to Mumbai in 1981 to study Chartered
Accountancy. But owing to his fascination for singing and music he
decided to pursue a career in playback singing. Despite being gifted
with a melodious voice, he had to struggle for a very long time.
During his struggle period due to economic constraints Abhijeet had to
reside in tiny rooms and stingy guesthouses. He returned to Kanpur but
each time was drawn to the magnetism of Mumbai with a dream to be
fulfilled. He was packing his bags after a long struggle in Bombay when
he received a call from R.D. Burman to sing for Dev Anands son's debut
film. Abhijeet also got to sing with Kishore Kumar, his idol, in the
same film. It all happened to Abhijeet as he received a new lease of
life when music director Ravindra Jain, gave him an offer to live with
him. It was during his stay with Ravindra that Abhijeet's proximity to
Bollywood grew in a phased and gradual manner. He began visiting R.D.
Burman's residence and started getting frequent opportunities to sing
for stage shows. Abhijeet got opportunities to sing as a chorus singer
for music directors Rajesh Roshan and Jagjit Singh.
It was R.D. Burman who acted like a mentor to Abhijeet and gave him his
first break as a playback singer in Dev Anand's Anand Aur Anand. The
song was 'Waadon ki shaam aayi, yaaron ke naam aayi'. But the film
flopped and he was struggling to find work again. For quite a few years
after that he resorted to singing cover versions of Kishore Kumar hits.
In the 1990s he got his due rewards when the songs of Baaghi of
Anand-Milind, 'Ek chanchal shokh hasina', 'Chandni raat hai' and 'Har
kasam se badi hai' were Superhits. Today Abhijeet is one of the top
names when it comes to male playback singers. He has entrenched himself
firmly in the music world, with several other hits like 'Ole Ole' in
Yeh Dillagi, the title track of Main Khiladi Tu Anari, 'Zara sa Jhoom
loo main' Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge 'Teri ankhen jhuki jhuki'
Fareb, 'Shaher Ki ladki' Rakshak, 'Jhanjhriya' Krishna, 'Tan tana tan
tan tara' Judwaa. Be it a Sunil Shetty, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif
Ali Khan, or Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan and now Hrithik Roshan,
Abhijeet has sung for them all. He performed for many films like
Baaghi, Sadak, Khiladi, Raja Babu, Yeh Dillagi, Yes Boss, Baadshah,
Josh and Dhadkan and many more. After his success in playback singing
he thought of singing pop. He launched two albums, Main Deewana Hoon
and Tapori No. 1. But both albums did not click commercially. After
these two pop albums, he launched Aashiqui, which was appreciated by
audience. Recently he has launched a pop album, Tere Bina, whose songs
and video are chartbusters.
He won the Filmfare Award and Screen Award for the best singer for his
song 'Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaoon' in Yes Boss. He also won the MTV ASIA
Award 2004. After that singing with most of the big banner movies and
top music composers, the singer has once again hit the top
charts.
