Shamshad Begum (Urdu: شمشاد بیگم, IAST: Śamśād Bēgam; 14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) was an Indian singer who was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi film industry. Begum is regarded as one of the best and most popular female playback singers, and a pioneering figure in Hindi film music and was also one of the most influential playback singers during the "Golden Age" of Bollywood (1940s–1960s). Notable for her distinctive voice and range, she sang over 6,000 songs in Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Punjabi languages, among which 1287 were Hindi film songs. She worked with renowned composers of the time, such as Ghulam Haider who first discovered her. She also worked with Naushad Ali and O. P. Nayyar, for whom she was one of their favorites. Her songs from the 1940s to the early 1970s remain popular and continue to be remixed.
Awards and recognition Padma Bhushan Award (2009) O. P. Nayyar Award (2009)
Personal life Shamshad Begum was born in Lahore, British India (present-day Pakistan) on 14 April 1919. the day after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in nearby Amritsar. Though many records originally listed her birthplace as Amritsar, her daughter, Usha Ratra, clarified in a 2013 interview that Begum was born in Lahore into a conservative Punjabi Muslim family, noting that her father worked as a mechanic (mistry). She was one of eight children, five sons and three daughters, born to a conservative Punjabi Muslim family of limited means. Her father, Mian Hussain Baksh, worked as a mechanic and her mother, Ghulam Fatima, was a pious lady of conservative disposition, a devoted wife and mother who raised her children with traditional family values. Despite family objections, Shamshad Begum started singing at weddings and social events at the age of 12. During her initial recordings, her father insisted that she wear a burqa and not be photographed.
In 1932, the teenage Shamshad came in contact with Ganpat Lal Batto, a Hindu law student who lived in the same neighbourhood and who was several years older than her. In those days, marriages were performed while the bride and groom were very young, and Shamshad's parents were already looking out for a suitable partner for her. Their efforts were on the verge of bearing fruit in 1934, when Ganpat Lal Batto and Shamshad made the decision to marry each other. In 1934, despite strenuous opposition from both their families due to religious differences, 15-year-old Shamshad married Ganpat Lal Batto. The couple had but one child, a daughter named Usha Ratra, who in due course married a Hindu gentleman, Lieutenant Colonel Yogesh Ratra, an officer in the Indian Army.
Ganpat Lal Batto died in a road accident in 1955. His death left Shamshad deeply upset, as he had been the focus of her life and they were extremely devoted to each other. He had managed many aspects of her career and contracts, significantly boosting her professional development. Following his death, Shamshad became listless and lost the will to pursue her career, which subsequently declined sharply. Indeed, while Shamshad Begum was an outstanding and famous singer, she was always a wife and mother first — someone who instinctively prioritised her family over her career. She preferred to keep away from the public eye and business dealings, believing it improper for a woman to be involved in such matters.
After her husband's death, Shamshad Begum began living with her daughter and son-in-law in Mumbai, first in south Mumbai and later at Hiranandani Gardens. She gradually became a recluse and devoted herself entirely to her grandchildren, to the point that the general public was unaware of whether she was alive or dead. In 2004, a controversy erupted in the media, when several publications wrongly reported that Shamshad Begum had died a few years previously. Shamshad's family clarified in a press release that this was not so. Her self-imposed seclusion is remarkable, because during all those decades away from the public eye, her old songs remained popular with the public and were often played on Vividh Bharati and All India Radio.
Career 1924–40 Begum's talent was first spotted by her principal when she was in primary school in 1924. Impressed by the quality of her voice, she was made head singer of classroom prayer. At 10, she started singing folk-based songs at religious functions and family marriages. She received no formal musical training. Her singing ambitions, which she held from 1929, met with opposition from her family. In 1931, when she was twelve, her uncle, who enjoyed qawwalis and ghazals, secretly took her to Jenophone (or Xenophone) Music Company for an audition with Lahore-based musician and composer, Ghulam Haider. Begum said in an interview, "I sang Bahadur Shah Zafar's (the poet-ruler) ghazal Mera yaar mujhe mile agar." An impressed Haider gave her a contract for twelve songs, with the same facilities provided to top singers. It was Begum's paternal uncle Aamir Khan who convinced her father, Miyan Hussain Baksh, to allow her to sing. When she won a contract with a recording company, her father agreed to let her sing on the condition that she would record in a burka and not allow herself to be photographed. She earned 15 rupees per song and was awarded 5,000 on the completion of the contract on Xenophone. Xenophone was a renowned music recording company, patronised by the rich, and her popularity grew in elite circles in the early 1930s. Though she had won the Xenophone audition without having any formal music training, Hussain Bakshwale Sahab and later Ghulam Haider improved her singing skills between 1937 and 1939.
Her popular breakthrough came when she began singing on All India Radio (AIR) in Peshawar and Lahore from 1937. Producer Dalsukh Pancholi wanted her to act as well in a film he was producing. Begum readily agreed, gave a screen test and was selected. Her father became angry, when he found out and warned her that she would not be allowed to sing if she continued to harbour a desire to act. Begum promised her father that she would never appear before the camera. She continued to sing songs on the radio. She never posed for photographs, and few people saw her pictures between 1933 and the 1970s.
Shamshad Begum sang for AIR through her musical group 'The Crown Imperial Theatrical Company of Performing Arts', set up in Delhi. The then AIR Lahore helped her to enter the world of movies as they frequently broadcast her songs, which induced music directors to use her voice for their films. Begum also recorded naats and other devotional music for a couple of gramophone recording companies. Her crystal-clear voice caught the attention of sarangi maestro Hussain Bakshwale Saheb, who took her as his disciple.
1941–45 Film director Mehboob Khan brought Shamshad Begum to Mumbai after telling her husband 'I will take her to Mumbai and give her a flat, car, conveyance and even if four to six people accompany her, it's fine. Please let her come to Mumbai'. Her father was not convinced at first but later gave in as Shamshad wanted to come to Mumbai. Haider used her voice skilfully in some of his earlier films such as Khazanchi (1941) and Khandan (1942). By 1940, Begum was already well established on the radio. The songs "Cheechi Wich Pa ke Chhalla", "Mera Haal Vekh Ke" and "Kankaan Diyaan Faslaan" from Yamla Jatt of 1940 became a huge hit and popularised Pran, singer Begum and composer Haider. Haider continued to compose hit songs which Begum sang for films including Zamindar, Poonji and Shama. Khan used Begum's voice in Taqdeer (1943), where he introduced Nargis as the heroine. Begum was soon singing for other composers including Rafiq Ghaznavi, Ameer Ali, Pt. Gobindram, Pt. Amarnath, Bulo C. Rani, Rashid Atre and M. A. Mukhtar, in the pre-independence era.
When Haider moved to Bombay in 1944, Begum went with him as a member of his team, leaving behind her family and staying with her Chacha (paternal uncle) Aamir Khan who used to encourage her in her singing career. After partition, Haider migrated to Pakistan but Begum remained in Mumbai. She had no known Pakistani connection post 1947. Begum became a national star between the early 1940s and the early 1960s, having a voice different from her peers such as Noorjehan (also discovered by Haider), Mubarak Begum, Suraiya, Sudha Malhotra, Geeta Dutt and Amirbai Karnataki. Her peak period in the Hindi film industry was from 1940 to 1955.
1946–55 Begum sang extensively for composers including Naushad Ali, O. P. Nayyar, C. Ramchandra and S. D. Burman from 1946 to 1960. Naushad acknowledged in an interview that he was indebted to Begum in reaching the top, as she was famous before he became known in the late 1940s; after his tracks sung by her became highly popular, his talent was recognised. It was Begum's solo and duet songs sung for Naushad in the late 1940s and early 1950s which made Naushad famous. After Naushad became successful he recorded songs with new singers as well in the early 1950s, but kept working with Shamshad in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Naushad chose his favourite singer Begum once again to sing four out of the twelve songs in Mother India.
Begum is credited with singing one of the first Westernised songs, "Meri jaan...Sunday ke Sunday" by C. Ramchandra. She kept getting more offers to sing songs and was the highest paid female singer from 1940 to 1955 and again post Mother India in 1957 to 1964. In 1949, music directors S. Rajeswara Rao, M. D. Parthasarathy and Balakrishna Kalla asked her to sing "Jaiyo Jaiyo Shipayon Bazar" for P. Bhanumathi in the film Nishan, produced by Gemini Films of Madras, which became highly popular.
Although Burman started composing Bengali music in 1937, he achieved national fame with tracks sung by Begum in Hindi films. Burman was not well established as a music director in Hindi films until 1946; he then asked Begum to sing in his debut Hindi film as music director, Shikari (1946), with the song, "Kuch Rang Badal Rahi". In 1949, came Shabnam, in which Burman asked her to sing duets named "Pyar Main Tumne" and "Kismat Bhi Bhichadna" with Mukesh, which became popular. Shabnam was Burman's biggest hit to that date with Filmistan, and was especially noticeable for its multilingual song "Yeh Duniya Roop ki Chor", sung by Begum and acted by Kamini Kaushal, which became another hit. Burman subsequently asked her to sing tracks in Bazar, Mashaal, Bahar, Shahenshah, Miss India, and other films. The song "Jaam Tham Le" from Shahenshah was a trendsetter for Burman compositions.
Begum had met Nayyar during her radio stint in Lahore, when he worked as an office boy delivering cakes for the lead singers. In 1954, when Nayyar got a break as a composer, he approached Begum to record songs for Mangu. Nayyar described her voice as resembling a "temple bell" for its clarity of tone. He worked with her until the late 1960s and gave her many hit songs, including "Ab To Jee Hone Laga" from Mr. & Mrs. '55, "Main Jaan Gayi Tujhe" from Howrah Bridge, "Zara Pyar Karle" from Mangu, "Saiyan Teri Ankhon Mein" from 12' O Clock, "Thodasa Dil Lagana" from Musafirkhana, and many others.
Several of her songs from this period remain extremely popular, including those acted by Nigar Sultana, such as "Teri Mehfil Mein" from Mughal E Azam and Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon from Patanga (1949), as well as "Saiyan Dil Mein Aana Re", acted by Vyjayanthimala, and "Boojh Mera Naam Re", acted by Minoo Mumtaz. Milte Hi Aankhen Dil Hua Deewana Kisi Ka from Babul (1950) had a romantic duet with Talat Mahmood, acted by Dilip Kumar and Munawar Sultana, which also became popular. Her duet with Rafi, "Chhala Deja Nishani" from Bazar became a mega-hit.