Career
Early in her career Sharda was offered a voice test by Showman Raj Kapoor when he first heard her singing in a function at Shrichand Ahuja's residence in Tehran. She got her first big break in Bollywood with the song "Titli Udi" in Suraj (1966). She was promoted by Shankar of the Shankar Jaikishan duo.
"Titli udi" turned out to be a top chartbuster in 1966. It so happens that the coveted Filmfare award for best playback singer had only one category (either male or female) until 1966. "Titli Udi" song, however, was tied as best song with Mohd Rafi's song "Baharo Phool Barsao" which had never happened before. Sharda didn`t win the award but from then on Filmfare started giving two awards for best playback singer: one for male singer and the other for female singer. Thus Sharda made history. Thereafter Sharda was nominated 4 years in a row (1968–71) for best female playback singer and won another Filmfare award. In a short span Sharda won 2 Filmfare awards, when the Mangeshkar Sisters were dominating. Thereafter she continued singing for Shankar in nearly all of his films until his death. Her voice was last heard in Kaanch Ki Deewar (1986).
She sang with most of the top singers like Mohd Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar, Yesudas, Mukesh and Suman Kalyanpur. She lent her voice to leading ladies of the time like Vyjayanthimala, Saira Banu, Hema Malini, Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz, Rekha and Helen. Besides Shankar she recorded songs with Usha Khanna, Ravi, Dattaram, Iqbal Qureshi and a few others. She was the first Indian female singer to cut her own pop album in India, called Sizzlers in 1971 which was launched by HMV.
She performed on stage on several occasions like Filmfare Awards functions, charity shows, naval functions, and many others.
Sharda was never able to reach the top bracket of singers but she did manage to create a certain section of the music listeners as her fans and well wishers. She conducts music lessons for children and aspiring singers. Besides Hindi she also sang in Telugu, Marathi, English, and Gujrathi.
Read more about this topic: Sharda Rajan Iyengar
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