Sulakshana Pandit

Biography

Sulakshana Pandit (12 July 1954 – 6 November 2025) was an Indian playback singer and film actress who worked primarily in Hindi cinema during the 1970s and 1980s. She belonged to the Mewati Gharana, a prominent school of Indian classical music. Pandit was the elder sister of music director duo Jatin–Lalit and former actress Vijayta Pandit.

Career

Sulakshana's career as an actress spanned the 1970s and early 1980s. As a leading lady she worked with most of the top actors of the 1970s like Jeetendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Shashi Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha. Her acting career began with the suspense thriller Uljhan in 1975, opposite Sanjeev Kumar. In Anil Ganguly's Sankoch (1976), which was based on the novel Parineeta, she portrayed Lolita. Her other popular films include Hera Pheri, Apnapan, Khandaan, Chehre Pe Chehra, Dharam Kanta and Waqt Ki Deewar.
She acted in a Bengali movie Bandie 1978, where she was paired opposite Uttam Kumar.
Sulakshana had a singing career alongside her acting one. She began her singing career as a child singer singing the popular song "Saat Samundar Paar se" with Lata Mangeshkar in the 1967 film Taqdeer. Thereafter, she recorded with famed musicians such as Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar. She sang in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya and Gujarati. In 1980, she released an album titled Jazbaat (HMV), wherein she rendered ghazals. She sang duets with accomplished singers such as Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Shailender Singh, Yesudas, Mahendra Kapoor and Udit Narayan. She sang under music directors such as Shankar Jaikishan, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Kanu Roy, Bappi Lahiri, Usha Khanna, Rajesh Roshan, Khayyam, Rajkamal and several others. In 1986, Sulakshana was one of the singers to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London to celebrate the "Festival of Indian Music" Concert along with acclaimed Music Directors Laxmikant Pyarelal and singers Manhar, Shabbir Kumar, Nitin Mukesh and Anuradha Paudwal.
Her voice was last heard in an alaap in the song "Saagar Kinare Bhi Do Dil" from the movie Khamoshi the musical (1996), which was composed by her brothers Jatin and Lalit.

Personal life and death

Sulakshana came from a musical family originating from Pilimandori Village in Hissar (now Fatehabad) district of Haryana state. The famous classical vocalist and legendary Pandit Jasraj was her uncle. Ex Rajgarh MP & Jan Sangh leader Vasant Kumar Pandit was also her uncle. She started singing at the age of nine. Her elder brother Mandheer Pandit (who was earlier a music composer in the 1980s with Jatin Pandit as the duo Mandheer–Jatin) was her constant companion in Mumbai; they performed and sang on stage until Sulakshana became a leading playback singer through many of their live concerts with legends such as Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi.
She had three brothers (Mandheer, Jatin and Lalit Pandit) and three sisters (Maya Anderson, Sandhya Singh and Vijayta Pandit). Her father Pratap Narain Pandit was an accomplished classical vocalist. Pandit's nephew, Yash Pandit, is an Indian television actor. Nieces Shraddha Pandit and Shweta Pandit are playback singers. Her cousin is playback singer Hemlata.
Pandit never married, after actor Sanjeev Kumar turned down her marriage proposal. She fell on hard times after she stopped getting work. Her sister Vijayta Pandit and brother-in-law, music composer Aadesh Shrivastava, had plans to compose a devotional album for her, but Aadesh died before he could. She broke her hip bone when she fell in the bathroom. Pandit made rare public appearances after her four surgeries that left her impaired. She gave a full length radio interview wherein she spoke about her acting and singing career to RJ Vijay Akela in July 2017.
Pandit died of cardiac arrest on 6 November 2025, at the age of 71.