Melodious & Marvellous

She entered Bollywood as a ‘Baby Doll’ looking ‘Lovely’, carried on with her ‘Chittiyan Kallaiyan’ and broke hearts with her ‘Desi Look’. She is still shaking on ‘Beat Pe Booty’ and gets an enormous number of ‘Luv Letters’ from her fans. Presenting to you the sensational Kanika Kapoor…

- Rahul Paul

Kanika may be called a late entrant to Bollywood but her musical journey started as early as when she was eight years old. Kanika goes down the memory lane, “I had been training to become a singer since I was eight while growing up in Lucknow. I have sung as a child artiste on All India Radio since the age of 11, but the moment I felt I could be a performing artiste was when I won an inter school competition at the age of 12 or 13. That’s when I thought that I could do it.” Kanika has even performed with the famous bhajan and ghazal singer, Anup Jalota, who happened to be her father’s childhood friend from Lucknow. Her favourite song while growing up was Lag Jaa Gale by Lata Mangeshkar and she was a huge fan of RD Burman.

But, things didn’t turn out the way Kanika hoped because she met Raj, married him and moved to London at the mere age of 18. The marriage didn’t last but by the end of it, Kanika was able to start her career as a singer by launching her first single, Jugni, in collaboration with UK based artiste Dr Zeus. It went to become a rage. “Jugni is the most special song to me. I believe it gave me everything I have in my career today. Ekta Kapoor heard Jugni and became a fan of the song. That is how I got the offer to sing ‘Baby Doll’.” The rest, as they say, is history.