Bollywood Pandits

Biography

With the success of “Bombay Dreams”, the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music hall, in London’s West End and Oscar winning “Slumdog Millionaire” and the popularity of Bollywood movies all over the planet, Bollywood has finally made it to centre stage.

Founded in 1994, Bollywood Pandits has become the foremost exponent of Bollywood in its musical form in London and the UK and have been performing a wide range of Indian music in a range of styles, from Indian Folk and soul-shaking Bollywood classics to Bhangra.

The band is... 
  • Kiran Thakrar
  • Anu Shukla
  • Kash Khajuria,
  • Praful Ladwa,
  • Paresh Jethwa
  • Harnam Raikmo
  • Amit Jani
  • Mitel Purohit
  • Mahendra Mesuria,
  • Ghanshyam Makwana
  • Sahib G
  • Vijay Mesuira


    The band has performed for Her Majesty The Queen of Britain and Prince Charles for The Commonwealth Day, Universal Pictures, Goldman Sachs, Louis Vitton, BBC, Royal National Theatre London, The National Trust, Asian Business Awards, British Asian Music Awards,The Festival of The Sea (Portsmouth), The Riverside Festival in Nottingham, The Ethno Dance Festival in Moscow, the Mayor of London and many more. Also in Never Mind The Buzzcocks (where they did a rousing version of ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ with Bill Bailey, Danny Alan, David Jones-Mcfly, Simon Amstell and Phill Jupitus) – even a two-night stint performing alongside Bill Bailey in front of 20,000 people at the Wembley arena
.Bollywood Pandits in Indian outfit       Bollywood Pandits in western outfit
 
   
Kiran Thakrar the founder and the musical director of the band has been working, living and breathing music for over 30 years. He has performed in more than 4000 concerts worldwide and has worked with some of the most respected names in the industry like the late Ustad Nusrahat Fateh Ali Khan, Zakir Hussein, Sivamani, Bollywood playback singers like Kavita Krishnamurthi, Sadhna Sargam, Hariharan, Hans Raj Hans, Richa Sharma, Sweta Pandit and many more.
He has also worked and assisted Bollywood music directors Nadeem Shravan, and Ravindra Jain.
He has composed and produced many award winning albums such as, his work on “Beyond Boundaries” has been given an award for ‘Best World Music Album of 2004’ by Canada’s JUNO awards.
His latest short film “Diana” for which he composed original music score has won world famous “IRIS PRIZE AWARD” and 'JURY AWARD''


 
For further information visit his website www.kiranthakrar.com
 


Anu Shukla - The lead singer and artistic director of the band started her singing career at the age of 12 originating from Nairobi (Kenya) and has performed in Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Austria, America, India, Sweden, and Holland. She has also won the Best Female Singer Award for the "All UK Hindi Singers Competition” In 1993
In 1994 she was invited by the band DISSIDENTEN from Germany to record and to travel with them to major parts of Germany, Austria and Spain to perform 'JUNGLE BOOK', a fusion of Indian and jazz music which won the Award for the highest sales in world music in USA (1994).
In 2009 she was invited by prolific artistic director Martin Amaud of Les Petits to lend her vocals for he famous Bollywood musical “ Bollywood Land-Where love never dies” in Madrid
Her recent single “Baby Dil Deewana” with American RNB superstar Ginuwine went no 2 in Indie chart & no 7 in Rnb Chart. Currently she is working on her debut album “Colors of Music”




 

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