Shreya Ghoshal – Top 20 Solo Songs in Hindi
Since year 2002, Shreya is the most lovely female voice of Bollywood. Apart from Bollywood, she also sings for different regional language films. No doubt, Shreya is the most popular female singer of Bollywood in the past one decade or so. Since early 2010s, Bollywood is focused on foot tapping numbers, and many female voices have been used by music composers over the years. Yet if it is the choice of a melodious number, definitely Shreya is the first choice among music directors.
She is perhaps the first female artist in Indian film industry to win National award in singing category for her debut song. She won the awards for her first recorded song – Bairi Piya of Devdas in 2002. Correct me if I am wrong. Both P. Unnikrishnan and his daughter Uthara Unnikrishnan have won the same awards. Through this column I would like to list her most popular 20 solo tracks. I exclude her debut song “Bairi Piya” as is a duet in the music album, though only the female version appears in the film.
1. Bahara Bahara from I Hate Love Stories – Let me start with this energetic song pictured on Sonam Kapoor and Imran Khan. All the songs like I hate love stories, Bin Tere and Sadka Kiya from the movie became extremely popular. Yet ‘Bahara’ song sung by Shreya became a huge chartbuster. There are two versions of the same song.
2. Barso Re Megha from Guru – One of the lovely rain songs ever pictured in Bollywood, its music was composed by music maestro A. R. Rahman. Pictured on Aishwarya Rai, the song gave Shreya numerous awards and nominations including Filmfare. She received Filmfare awards for the song in 2007, beating her own song Yeh Ishq Haye from Jab We Met which later won National Film Awards.
3. Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai from Jism – After Devdas, Jism gave her major break to Bollywood, and also gave her the second Filmfare award in a row. The song was pictured on Bipasha Basu and John Abraham. The movie also included a popular solo track – Chalo Tumko Lekar.
4. Agar Tum Mil Jaao from Zeher – No doubt, Agar Tum Mil Jaao will be counted among her best 10 songs all time. This evergreen romantic track was pictured on Emraan Hashmi and Udita Goswami. 
5. Deewani Mastani from Bajirao Mastani – One of the top songs of the year 2015 the song gave Shreya her 6th Filmfare awards. Shreya has been her best for Deepika Padukone in slow and romantic tracks, and has given numerous melodious songs before. Shreya earned her 6th Filmfare award for this song after a long break of 7 years. She won the award for the last time in 2009 for the duet, Teri Ore of Singh is Kinng.
6. Yeh Ishq Haye from Jab We Met – This popular peppy number was pictured on Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor, and one of the chartbusters of the year 2007. The song bagged her the most prestigious National Film Award, apart from several nominations.
7. Nagada Sang Dhol from Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-leela – Though Osman Mir gave back voice for this popular dance number the song exclusively belongs to Shreya. It’s one of the best songs in Deepika Padukone-Shreya Ghoshal combination. It was somewhat a repeat version of Dhol Baje from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, belonging to the same director.
8. Chikni Chameli from Agneepath – This popular item song from the movie Agneepath was pictured on Katrina Kaif and was a huge chartbuster for the year 2012. Katrina has played cameo roles/item numbers in only a few number of movies, and Agneepath is one such.
9. Sunn Raha Hai from Aashique 2 – Though the male version sung by Ankit Tiwari became a rage among youngsters, its female version sung by Shreya also needs a place in our Top List.
10. Title track from Cheeni Kum – All the songs of the movie composed by Illayaraja were originally picked from his south Indian films done in the 1980s. Most of the songs belong to Tamil films. This particular track was adapted from mega blockbuster Tamil hit of Mohan and Revathy – Maunaragam. The song was Mandram Vandha sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam.
11. Jaane Do Na from Cheeni Kum – I would like to pick one more song from the same film which is my personal favorite also. No doubt, songs of the movie are melodious. It was derived from Kannada song – “Jotheyali Jothe Jotheyali” of Geeta reused for one Tamil film in the 1980s as well. I would like to mention one more solo song of Shreya Ghoshal for the movie, Baatein Hawa Hai. Its Tamil version ‘Kuzhaloothum Kannanikk’ was extremely popular in the late 1980s when I was a child. The success of the songs of the movie proves that ‘good music is timeless and language barrier too is not significant’.
12. Aye Meri Zindagi of Saaya – The song had two versions and the male version was sung by Udit Narayan. Shreya also played a cameo role in this film. She was seen performing the song – “Har Taraf”.
13. Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai of Rab Ne Bana Dee Jodi – The song too had two versions. The other version was sung by Roop Kumar Rathod and Shreya herself.
14. Silsila Yeh Chahat Ka from Devdas – Her debut film gave her a major break in the Bollywood music industry, and she got opportunity to sing 5 tracks for the film. Her voice was used for all songs of Aishwarya Rai, while Kavita Krishnamurthy sung for Madhuri Dixit. Among those 5 songs, Silsila song was a solo pictured on beautiful Ash.
15. Bepanah Pyaar Hai Aaja from Krishna Cottage – This horror thriller starred an ensemble star cast of Sohail Khan, Ishaa Koppikar, Anita Hassanandani, Vrajesh Hirjee, Divya Palat, Hiten Tejwani and Rati Agnihotri and fared well at box office.
16. O Bekhabar of Action Replayy – This lovely single was pictured on Aishwarya Rai, who looked extremely beautiful in this song. The song also featured Akshay Kumar and Aditya Roy Kapoor.
17. Main Chali of Force – This song exclusively belongs to Shreya, and the back voice was supported by Naresh Iyer. So I would like to list this song among ‘Solo Hits’ of Shreya. Though most of the songs of its original Tamil version ‘Kakka Kakka’ were re-used, this particular track was a fresh one. Sorry Sorry – The tune was reused by the composer Harris Jayaraj from his Telugu work, Munna released in 2007. The original song Manasa Nuvvunde Chote Cheppamma was sung by Sadhana Sargam, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Krish, Naresh Iyer and Haricharan, and filmed on nation’s heartthrob Prabhas and Ileana D’Cruz. Naresh Iyer’s voice was retained in this song too, as back support to Shreya. The composer has earlier given beautiful songs for Rehna Tera Dil Mein. Genelia D’souza looks so lovely and innocent in this song. Also read: Tamil songs re-used for Hindi remakes. Javed Akhtar wrote the beautiful lyrics.
18. Nanga Punga Dost of PK – PK is the highest grosser Hindi film, and the film starred Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma and Sushant Singh Rajput in lead roles. This song featured Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma and this lovely choreographed song was a chartbuster for the year 2015.
19. Mohe Rang Do Laal of Bajirao Mastani – This finely choreographed song featured Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. Pandit Birju Maharaj also provided vocals for this song.
20. Abhi Na Jao Chod Kar of Mausam – I would like to conclude the list by the re-created version of Jaidev’s song from the movie, Hum Dono. The song featured Sonam Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor.
It was not an easy task for me to list Shreya Ghoshal’s solo songs only, because many of my favorites were duets. Yet I have tried my best to list the best of her solo songs. Among the songs listed above, two of them are not pure solo numbers – Mein Chali of Force and Mohe Rang Do of Bajirao Mastani. As on 2018, Ghoomar song of Shreya has also become extremely popular. Yet again, it can’t be purely categorized as a solo track. It includes back vocals of many other artists, most notably the voice of folk artist Swaroop Khan which enhanced the traditional quality of song a lot.
Also read a few more articles on Shreya Ghoshal. Here I provide page link. Click on the images in the gallery to read.
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Nice Blog.