Mahalakshmi Iyer

Biography

Mahalakshmi Iyer (born 11 July 1976) is an Indian playback singer known for her contributions to Hindi, Assamese and Tamil film music. She has also recorded songs in several other Indian languages, including Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati and Kannada. Shortly after completing her graduation, she began her professional career by lending her voice to advertising jingles. Although she recorded her first song in 1997 for the unreleased film Dus with the composer trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, her first officially released film song came in 1998 with A. R. Rahman in Dil Se... Over the years, she has recorded approximately 5,000 songs, working with many leading composers across the Indian film industry.
Mahalakshmi was one of the lead vocalists in the song “Jai Ho” from the film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). For this track, she shared the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture at the 52nd Grammy Awards held on 31 January 2010. The same song also received the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards. Throughout her career, she has received several accolades, including the Maharashtra State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer, the Orissa State Film Award for Best Singer, the Gujarat State Film Award for Best Playback Singer, the Gujarati Iconic Film Award (GIFA) for Best Playback Singer, and the Filmfare Award Assamese for Best Playback Singer in 2024.
In addition to her work in film music, she has collaborated with international artists such as Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet on the project, Deep Forest. She has also released Indie singles and continues to perform extensively in live concerts worldwide, frequently touring with prominent composers such as A. R. Rahman, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Jatin–Lalit and Zubeen Garg.

Early life

Mahalakshmi Iyer was born on July 11, 1976, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, into a Tamil-speaking Iyer family. Her mother is a Carnatic classical singer, which greatly influenced Mahalakshmi’s early musical upbringing. She began her formal training in Hindustani classical music at a young age, alongside her two sisters. Much of her childhood was spent in the Chembur neighborhood of Mumbai. She completed her undergraduate studies in Economics at RA Podar College of Arts and Commerce and later attended St. Xavier’s College, both located in Mumbai.
Mahalakshmi began her professional career in music with her first jingle assignment for Optex Sarees. She subsequently established herself in the advertising industry, lending her voice to numerous campaigns for major brands such as Close-up, Nescafé, Johnson's Baby Soap, Uncle Chipps, Amul, Pepsi, Cadbury Dairy Milk, among many others.

Career

Mahalakshmi made her playback debut with the film Dus in 1997, but the film was never completed and remained unreleased due to the sudden passing of the film's director Mukul S. Anand. The album however was released in 1999 as a tribute. She sang the track Ae Ajnabee with Udit Narayan for A. R. Rahman in Mani Ratnam's Dil Se.. which was her first release as a playback singer and considered to be her debut. Mahalakshmi continued singing for Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and A.R. Rahman in many films which followed.
Since then she has also sung many serials, jingles, and original albums. She was part of several successful soundtracks such as Mission Kashmir, Yaadein and Saathiya and worked with some of the biggest music composers like A. R. Rahman, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Vishal–Shekhar, Nadeem–Shravan, Jatin–Lalit and more.
She has sung for many Yash Raj Films' biggest hits like Dhoom 2, Bunty Aur Babli, Salaam Namaste, Fanaa, Ta Ra Rum Pum and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
She was known for her performances in songs like "Kabhi Sham Dhale" from Sur – The Melody of Life (2002), "Har Taraf" from Rishtey (2002) and for hit songs like "Chup Chup Ke" from Bunty Aur Babli (2005), "Aaj Ki Raat" from Don: The Chase Begins Again (2006) and "Bol Na Halke Halke" from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
She sang on the Academy Award-winning song "Jai Ho" for A. R. Rahman in the film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Specifically, she sang the Hindi words between the short "Jai Ho" chants, as well as portions of the verses (most of which were sung by Sukhwinder Singh).
In the past, she rendered background vocal to the very famous Ghazal of Pankaj Udhas named Aur Ahistaa. She has also rendered her voice to many private album remixes notably Aaja Piya Tohe Pyar and Baahon Mein Chali Aao, which was originally rendered by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar.