Alka Yagnik: Struggles & Success Of A Bollywood Music Legend

As composers and ad-makers rehash and remix music from the 80s and 90s, this generation of youth is waking up to the mellifluous voices from yore that made their elder counterparts dive into their songs to groove, fall in love and lament lost love. In the coming weeks, this series will pay an ode to the legends of Bollywood music and chronicle their struggling years too.

Alka Yagnik

As I walked into a cafe near the university close to my home, a popular song from the movie Tamasha, ‘Agar Tum Saath Ho’, started playing on a TV channel. I heard a young girl, probably a college goer, exclaim, “Oh I love this song!” Her friend asked, “Who’s the female singer?” The girl quipped, “Dunno. Probably Shreya Ghoshal. Has to be her. It’s so soothing.”

For someone like me who grew up in the 80s and 90s, this pleasant voice was extremely familiar and instantly recognizable as Alka Yagnik. But this generation of teenagers and those younger than them have probably never heard this voice unless their parents were Bollywood music enthusiasts who played 90s music at home.

More than 20,000 songs in more than 1000 movies—that was Alka Yagnik’s discography by the beginning of the new millennium. But it has been almost two decades since she passed on the baton to Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan and very few of the little that she sang after that have been popular.

In The Beginning

An ardent Lata Mangeshkar fan and a passionate music lover who started singing when barely four, Alka Yagnik found her first guru in her mother, Subha Yagnik, a trained classical singer. By the age of six, she was already singing in AIR Kolkata and by the age of 10, she had travelled to Mumbai with her mother to start her career as a child singer. Her rendezvous with Raj Kapoor led her to Laxmikant (of the composer duo Laxmikant Pyarelal) who gave her two options—an immediate start as a dubbing artist or a later break as a singer. She chose the latter.

Alka studied, although not as enthusiastically as she pursued music, for the next four years and received training under Kalyanji Anandji and Laxmikant Pyarelal. At the age of 14, she received her first break in the movie Payal ki Jhankar in 1980 with the semi-classical song ‘Thirkat Ang’ composed by Chitalkar. It was followed by the Kalyanji Anandji composition ‘Mere Angne Mein’ in Laawaris (1981) as Rakhee’s voice. While the former did not find popularity among the audience, the latter was a smashing hit. But the Amitabh Bachchan version of the same song completely overshadowed this short and immensely melodious version and eventually faded from the memory of the audience. This was the beginning of her struggle in the Bollywood music industry.

While Kalyanji Anandji engaged her for Itni Si Baat in 1981, she also sang ‘Sun Jaan-e-Jaan’ for Rajesh Roshan for the horror flick Sannata in the same year with a fellow struggling singer who was to gain equal legendary status in later years—Udit Narayan (his story in another episode of this series).

Overshadowed

In 1982, shortly after Sannata, Alka continued to sing for Rajesh Roshan in the movies Hamari Bahu Alka and Kaamchor starring Rakesh Roshan. The former had a beautiful composition, ‘Hum Tum Rahenge Akele’ with Amit Kumar, and a forgettable sleazy number filled with double entendre (typical of the 80s), ‘Pakka Jamun Todo Nahin, Mere Ped Pe Chadho Nahin’. The latter had ‘Tumse Badhkar Duniya Mein’ with Kishore Kumar. It became immensely popular, but as fate would have it, her portion went unnoticed and got overshadowed by the legend. Eventually, many music lovers remembered it as a Kishore Kumar song.

From 1983 through to 1987, Alka sang many songs for Kalyanji Anandji in various hit movies including ‘Sagre Jagat Ka Ek Rakhwala’ in Nastik (starring Amitabh Bachchan), ‘Aa Gaye Ek Nahi Do Nahi Nahi Teen’ in Raaj Tilak (starring Dharmendra, Raj Kumar, Sunil Dutt & Kamal Hassan) and ‘Yudh Kar’ in Yudh (the movie that got Anil Kapoor his iconic ‘Ek Dum Jhakaas’ line). But none of them achieved the required popularity. She sang the immensely popular ‘Mujhe Peene Ka Shouk Nahin’ with Shabbir Kumar in the Amitabh-starrer Coolie. But then like her life during those struggling years, the song eventually ended up being remembered as a Shabbir Kumar hit. She also sang for Anu Mallik and Usha Khanna in those years but none was able to bring her the required fame.

Convergence Of Strugglers

In 1986, legendary music director Chitragupta’s sons and budding composers Anand & Milind brought the convergence of the struggling singers Udit Narayan, Anuradha Paudwal and Alka Yagnik for their second movie, the Govinda-starrer Tan-Badan. This convergence would eventually lead to collaborations in the later part of 80s and early 90s leading to the rise of the composer duo. In 1987, Alka Yagnik sang the melodious Kalyanji Anandji composition ‘Thoda Sa Gham Thodi Khushi’ in the Anil Kapoor-starrer Thikana.

Eight years after her first break, Alka finally found fame in 1988 with the Laxmikant Pyarelal composition ‘Ek Do Teen’ from the film Tezaab. The song won her the first out of seven Filmfare Awards for the Best Female Playback Singer.

‘Ek Do Teen’

The very same year, Gulshan Kumar’s relatively unknown music label T-series gathered an unknown director Mansoor Khan, equally unknown composer Anand-Milind, and struggling-to-thrive singers Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik for a movie starring unknown actors Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla—Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (QSQT as we used to fondly call it). All of them proved their mettle in this smashing hit and how. The movie etched itself in the annals of Bollywood music as a trendsetter, which reinvented the romantic musical genre selling more than 8 million albums. Had QSQT and Tezaab not happened to her, Bollywood probably would not have had the pleasure of knowing such a legendary talent because Anuradha Paudwal (her story in another episode) had already found fame by late 80s and early 90s.

Alka, thus had to struggle even after Tezaab and QSQT. Anuradha Paudwal had started to give tough competition to Lata Mangeshkar in the late 80s and early 90s, shortly after Aashiqui. It was the T-series wave that took the war of music label to a new high. HMV (Saregama) had almost lost the market at that time as new entrants like Tips and Venus came into the scene. Anuradha Paudwal had become the favorites of some major composers like Nadeem Shravan, Anand Milind and Laxmikant Pyarelal.

No Looking Back

In 1989-90, Alka Yagnik sang for all the major composers like RD Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Bappi Lahiri, Kalyanji Anandji, Anu Malik and Anand-Milind. She even churned a few hits like ‘Tu Mera Kaun Laage’ in Batwara with Anuradha Paudwal and Kavita Krishnamurty and ‘Baabul Ka Yeh Ghar’ in Daata with Kishore Kumar (a song that she fondly remembers happened when she was about to get married and leave for her marital home), ‘I Love You’ from Mahasangram and ‘Aye Kaash Tum Kehdo Kabhi’ from Ghar Ka Chiraag.

But none gave her the fame in continuity with what QSQT had brought, apart from the superhit ‘Gajar Ne Kiya Hai Ishara’ in Tridev with Sadhana Sargam. She still had to struggle till Nadeem Shravan gave her the requisite breather with Kumar Sanu in movies like Saajan and Phool Aur Kaante in 1991. These were followed by major hits in Khuda Gawah, Deewana, Dil Ka Kya Kasoor, Sapne Sajan Ke, Prem Deewane and Vishwatma in 1992. And then there was no looking back from thereon. Between 1989 and 2005, Alka Yagnik won 7 Filmfare awards, 2 national awards and numerable other awards.

Flashback

Some songs from Alka Yagnik’s struggling years (1980-90) that you might have missed.

Mere Angne Mein (female version) from Laawaris (1981)

Sun Jaan-e-Jaan from Sannata (1982)

Hum Tum Rahenge Akele from Hamari Bahu Alka (1982)

Tumse Badhkar Duniya Mein from Kaamchor (1982)

Yudh Kar from Yudh (1982)

Mujhe Peene Ka Shouk Nahin from Coolie (1983)

Thoda Sa Gham Thodi Khushi from Thikana (1987)

Tu Mera Kaun Lage from Batwara (1989)

Baabul Ka Yeh Ghar from Daata (1989)

Aye Kaash Tum Kehdo Kabhi from Ghar Ka Chiraag (1989)

(The writer is a doctor and public health specialist by profession but a passionate music enthusiast with special liking for Bollywood music from 80s and 90s)