Mohit Chauhan

Early life

Mohit Chauhan was born in the Nahan town of Sirmaur district, Himachal Pradesh on 11 March 1966 in a Rajput Family. He can speak fluently in Himachali, English and Hindi. He first attended St. Xavier's School, Delhi and then moved to Himachal Pradesh to complete his education. Chauhan graduated with a Master of Science in Geology from the Dharamsala College in Himachal Pradesh. He never received formal training in music, but sings and plays guitar, harmonica and the flute. After completing his education in Himachal, Chauhan came to Delhi where he formed the band Silk Route with his schoolmate Kem Trevedi (pianist) in 1996. He started his career singing Indian pop songs with the band Silk Route, with Arpit Gupta which released two albums, Boondein (1998) and Pehchan. The song "Dooba Dooba" became a hit in the Indipop music scene. However, the band dissolved. He stayed off the scene for a while until he came back with the song "Guncha" in 2005 from the movie "Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh". He also composed that song. Impressed by his vocals, he was then approached by A. R. Rahman to sing for the movie Rang De Basanti. However, it wasn't until 2007 when music director Pritam approached him for the song Tum Se Hi for the movie Jab We Met that Chauhan finally achieved mainstream success. Mohit Chauhan says before he made it big as a musician, he wanted to be an actor.“I did a lot of theatre. I finished my university, was part of NSD and did full length plays on stage. In fact, at one point of time I wanted to get into FTII, but there were no acting courses then. I think it started only a couple of years ago. So I missed the opportunity,” Chauhan told PTI.

Starting of Career : Silk Route-Pehchaan & Boondein

Born in a small district of Himachal Pradesh, Mohit Chauhan is one of the most melodious singers of Bollywood.After attending St. Xavier’s School, Delhi, he did his masters in Geology in Dharamsala. Mohit’s music career has had a dream start though he never received any formal training in music. He is a self-taught artis. After a while, he moved to Delhi with the ambition of becoming an ad copywriter. The soulful band Silk Route happened — which consists of Mohit, his schoolmate Kem Trivedi, a magical hand behind the keyboard, flutes, and then Kenny Puri, an expertise drummer who grew up in Dehra Dun. Atul Mittal from Himachal is another founder member of the band. Mohit Chauhan’s music is inherited from his grandfather, who was a classical singer. He is the major motivation behind his soulful music. He is an ardent lover of ghazal and always been an enthusiast in singing songs of (late) Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali and (late) Mehdi Hassan. Apart from that, Western music and Kishore Kumar ’s voice interests him. Silk Route is definitely a real turning point in his career. At the time of his graduation, he along with his friends used to create songs and formed the band in 1998. The band has been popularly known for their Indipop song Dooba Dooba from the album Boondein. The band has also scored and performed soundtracks and songs for movies such as Kalpana Lajmi's "Kyon", "Lets Enjoy" and "Urf Professor". After getting a huge success with “Dooba Dooba”, Silk Route emerged as a hit in the world of Indipop. Interestingly he sang various jingles for advertisements then Bollywood happened. In India, where it’s a real struggle to get recognized for independent music, but his band Silk Route did extremely well as two private albums Boondein in 1998 and then Pehchaan in 2000 were well received. Meanwhile, “Dooba dooba” from Boondein became a cult song for both lovers and college goers.The album debuted at number one on the album chart. Boondein featured songs in Hindi, English, and Pahadi, and the band won several awards at the awards in 1998. After garnering many accolades, Mohit then released “Pehchan” with Silk Route and after the band dissolved in 2008, he moved forward with his solo career. His solo album ‘Kalam’ was a unique anthology of poems written by the former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

2002 - 2007 From Bollywood Debut to Mainstream Success

Chauhan's career in Bollywood began in 2002 when he sang "Pehli Nazar Mein Dari Thi" in the movie Road. His songs "Khoon Chala" and "Masakali" from the films Rang De Basanti and Delhi-6 respectively, composed by Rahman and "Tum Se Hi" from the film Jab We Met, composed by Pritam, were successful. His subsequent chartbusters included the songs "Tu Ne Jo Na Kaha" for the 2009 film New York, "Ye Dooriyan" for Love Aaj Kal, and "Pehli Baar Mohabbat Ki Hai" for Kaminey. In 2010, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer for "Masakali". He also sang two superhit tracks "Bheegi Si" from the Movie Raajneeti and "Pee Loon" from Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai both arranged and directed by Pritam. His songs "Pee Loon" from Once Upon A Time in Mumbai,"Tujhe Bhula Diya" from Anjaana Anjaani directed by Vishal-Shekhar became chartbusters. He then sang "Yun Hi" from Tanu Weds Manu which is another addition to his super hit.

2011 - 2013

His songs from the movie Rockstar (2011 film) have become anthems. He sang his first Bengali song for the movie Sedin Dekha Hoyechilo and also he sang his second Bengali song for the movie Paglu. He sang his first Tamil Song "Po Nee Po" for the Movie 3 with Anirudh.

In addition to film playback singing, Chauhan has sung many advertisement jingles for products including Alpenlibe, Parachute, Wheel (detergent), Nescafe, Hippo Munchies, Vicks Vapor Rub, Alchemist & Maruti Suzuki Alto (2011). He has also sung the theme song for Star Parivaar Awards 2011 with Shreya Ghoshal.

In 2007, he took part in singing reality show, Mission Ustaad on 9X, where he teamed with Vasundhara Das. He also took part in the singing reality show on STAR Plus, Music Ka Maha Muqqabla, where he led the team Mohit's Fighters.

He has sung the title track of Yeh Hai Aashiqui Season 4.

He has also performed at various college festivals across the country, like at Sparsh 2008, the annual cultural festival at SVNIT, Surat, the Crescendo night of Alcheringa, the annual cultural festival of IIT Guwahati, in February 2013, and the Cultural Night of IIT Kharagpur in 2001, as well as IIT Bombay in 2009 and 2013. He recently also performed at the Star Night of the annual cultural festival, Engifest of Delhi Technological University on 16 February 2014.Latest at annual fest 'PULSE 'AIIMS Delhi (heavenly seven) on 20 September 2014.He performed at VIT University, Vellore in their annual sports and cultural festival Riviera, College of Engineering, Trivandrum for their annual cultural fest 'Dhwani' on 14 March 2015,performed at Recstacy, NIT Durgapur's annual cultural fest, performed at Eclectika, NIT Raipur's annual cultural fest, on 27 February 2016. He also recently performed at the BITOTSAV'16, BIT MESRA annual cultural fest on 20 March 2016.

In 2011 he featured in the third episode of The Dewarists collaborating with Indian Ocean for the song called Maaya. He was also featured on MTV Unplugged (India) in the same year. In 2013 he sang a song "Jad Se Judien" for the advertisement of L'Oreal Paris India.

Mohit recently did two songs for the first Himachali film Saanjh by Ajay Saklani.

2017

In 2017, Chauhan made his Gujrati debut with the song "Jaag Re Banda" from the film "Last Chance". He also sing two songs "Puchhe Amma" & "Deva Mere" for the first Himanchali film Saanjh. Supporting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious skill development goal, he joins hands with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to motivate young people to come forward and acquire new skills.

Albums

Awards and achievements

Chauhan has received two Filmfare Awards, an IIFA Award, three Zee Cine Awards and one Screen Awards.He sing ten song for the film Rockstar,for five different sonng he received the award for Male Playback Singer.Forbes India magazine declared him 81st on its 2012 celebrity 100 list.