Babla Mehta – Seasonal Bollywood Singer with close resemblance to Mukesh’s magical voice

Babla Mehta is an Indian singer best known for his association with Bhajans (devotional songs) as well as cover versions of Mukesh hits. He has also done playback singing for a few Bollywood films in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and has composed a few songs in non-filmy category. Tere Mere Hoton Pe composed by Siva Hari for Chandni in 1989 is his famous Bollywood song. He sang this duet aside Lata Mangeshkar and it was filmed on Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi. Though not regular in Bollywood, he owns a few more filmy songs to his credit such as Adayein Bhi Hain and Tu Pyaar Hai Kisi Aur Ka of Aamir Khan starrer – Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin, Tak Dhin Dhin Tak of Sanjay Dutt starrer – Sadak, Saari Raat Guzari of Jeene Do etc.

Babla Mehta belongs to a family of non-filmy background. However his father was a great patron of music, and a die-hard fan of Manna Dey songs. That’s how young Babla also got attracted to music and filmy songs. He started off with humming songs and then started singing in teens. However he mostly preferred to remain a bathroom singer as he was not courageous to sing before public. But one incident at college, when he was humiliated by his friends, he put up his courage to excel in this field. His college mate challenged his ability to sing, and Babla embarked on a new journey. It was only after that he started singing in public.

Tere Mere Hoton Pe song from Chandni – Voices rendered by Babla Mehta and Lata Mangeshkar

He was a banking employee. Yet he never left the passion of singing and music, an art which he inherited from his father. He started off as a stage singer. He was spotted by Gulshan Kumar of T-Series during one such stage performance and offered him to sing for the cassette company which he accepted. As his voice resembled singer Mukesh’s voice, he started off with recording cover versions of his film songs with T-series. He resigned his banking job and became a full-time singer. Tere Mere Hoton Pe was his first break to Bollywood. Despite the song became so popular among the masses, he got only less opportunities from Bollywood.

Babla Mehta – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. He is known for his voice resemblance with legendary playback singer Mukesh, and nicknamed – ‘Golden Voice of Mukesh’. He has also released many cover versions of Mukesh’s hit songs.

2. He has rendered over 250 songs of Mukesh in 10 solo albums, 6 duet albums and a few more.

3. His father too was into banking profession.

4. He seriously thought to prove himself as a singer only during his college days when a college mate humiliated him for his singing abilities. He just tried to correct his friend for not hitting the right notes.

5. His singing talent was well-promoted by R. D. Burman who gave him numerous opportunities for his stage shows. The iconic composer once happened to hear ‘Sajan Re Jhoot Mat Bolo’ – a cover version of Babla from an audio cassette shop while he was passing through Khar-station, Mumbai and thought it to be the real voice. So much surprised Burman was deeply impressed by his singing talents, and gave him opportunity to sing in his stage shows.

6. Apart from Hindi, he recorded songs in Bangla and Oriya languages.

7. He recorded all songs for the unreleased film, Dharti Ki Goad Mein. The film was not completed because of the unexpected death of Amjad Khan.