Mauli Dave - Early Years

Early Years

Mauli Dave was born on June 3 in Ahmedabad to parents, Ketan Dave and Dipti Dave. She started singing before she could talk when she was only 10 months old through her grandparents who were both ‘Visharath’ in Music. As a baby, Mauli was nicknamed Pum-Pum by her relatives and friends; and it wasn’t till she was about 10 when many found out her real name was Mauli.

Her parents moved to Houston, Texas U.S.A. in 1990 when Mauli was only 2 and half years old. Her mother was the main push and influential factor for her and her elder brother Omkar. She made it a point to teach them everything and anything possible from sports, martial arts, classical dance, classical music, instruments, fine arts, performing arts etc. to make sure they had an open door to all opportunities in life. Their mother sent Mauli and Omkar to live in India with their grandmother after their grandfather’s death from 1995 to 2000 where she learned Hindustani classical music from Mr. Divyang Thakur in Ahmadabad, Kuchipudi (classical dance) from Sri Radha Menon and received a diploma in it at an early age of 12. Mauli learned how to read, write and speak in Hindi Gujarati and a little bit of Sanskrit as well. After returning to the U.S.A. in 2000 Mauli started doing professional singing performances in small events at the young age of 12. Her mother, Dipti Dave, was the director of her own Music and Dance Academy originally opened in the 80’s where Mauli taught classical music, tabla and classical dance to people younger and elder to her. Mauli has also been trained in other dance styles such as Bharatnatyam, Odissi and Hip Hop.

In Highschool, Mauli played Varsity Tennis for all 4 years. Fine arts was also something she was always inclined towards since she was 8 years old; so she continued taking art based classes like drawing, painting and graphic designing from 8th grade till the 12 grade. It was during this period that she continued her study of North Indian Classical music under Chandra Courtney. Mauli graduated from high school with a distinguished degree as a Magna Cumlaude. Mauli decided to attend the University of Houston and study Graphic Communications to receive a Bachelors Degree in Arts. Being a straight A student all her life, she managed to be on the Dean’s list all two years. In February 2007, due to her mom’s persuasion, Mauli decided to participate in the Miss Teen India Texas Pageant, where she won and was crowned the title. Later in March that year, Mauli’s childhood dream to be a part of India’s most prestigious singing competition, “Saregamapa Challenge 2007,” came true when she auditioned from Houston, then New York and then in Mumbai eventually being selected and representing the U.S.A. Mauli was the most popular contestant on the show and overnight became a singing sensation from her amazing version of the song ‘Mayya Mayya.’

After becoming a youth icon through her singing, Mauli started looking into different types of projects. The next big project was hosting a family based dance show titled ‘Rock n Roll Family’ on the Zee Network, where her Hindi speaking skills were proven to be well beyond everyone’s expectations as everyone expected it to be otherwise due to her American upbringing. Because each episode opened with her dance performance, more people learned of her dancing background. She later got an offer for playing the main protagonist in a Tele-Film “Ek Anhonee” for the Zoom Network. Mauli was well appreciated for her role in this thriller as Divyani Mitra. Besides films, Mauli has also landed her voice as a singer and voice over artist for big Ad companies like Del Monte, Fastrack, Fructis Garnier, TVS Scooty etc.