Biography:

Monali Thakur is an Indian playback singer and actress.

Thakur comes from a musical family, her father Shakti Thakur is a renowned Bengali singer and her sister Mehuli Thakur Goswami is also a playback singer. She was trained in Hindustani classical music under Pandit Jagdish Prasad and Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty. She has learnt hip-hop and Bharatanatyam and is also a trained Salsa dancer.

Thakur got her start by singing in school and college competitions and performing at local functions, and received the Best Playback Singer award at the Anandalok Awards for the serial Sri Ramkrishna when she was 14. She rose to popularity after placing ninth in Indian Idol 2.

She had to struggle a lot hard even after Indian Idol to get a strong foothold in the music industry. Finally, she got an offer to sing for music director Pritam Chakraborty to sing two songs for the Bollywood film Race in 2008 - "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy lady)" and "Zara Zara Touch Me". She was originally scheduled for only one song, but her first recording impressed the film's directors Abbas - Mustan enough for them to book her a second. "Zara Zara Touch Me" was enormously successful, becoming the fourth-most-played song on Indian radio during the first half of 2008. She also got nominated for an IIFA Award for Best Female Playback and an Apsara Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Zara Zara Touch Me".

She was a judge in the Bengali music reality show Bengali Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li'l Champs for two years. She also appeared in the Bengali show Key Hobe Biggest Fan  and was part of Coke Studio.

Monali won Filmfare best Female Playback singer award for song 'Sawaar Loon' from the film 'Lootera' for year 2013 ( on 24 th Jan 2014)

As a child, she appeared in a Bengali television soap, Aalokito ek Indu, in which she played the lead role Indubala. It was followed by a couple of 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 the role of Bhromor. In 2014, she will make 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 will also be seen in Abbas Tyrewala's multistarrer Mango.

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