1940s

It was in the 1940s that the need for professional playback singers was increasingly felt. Though earlier composers in Lahore, like Ghulam Haider, Shyam Sunder, Pandit Amarnath and Pandit Govindram ,created a whole new lineup of playback singers--Shamshad Begum, Zeenar Begum, S D Batish and Amar.

Still, the early part of the 1940s was ruled by actor-singers like Ashok Kumar and even Ram Dulari (who sang the hits in Kidar Sharma's Chitralekha - a film that had music by the renowned classical exponent Jhande Khan, guru to the one and only Naushad). Anil Biswas was one of the first composers of the 1940s to realize the full potential of professional playback singers. He was joined by Naushad, who made his debut as a composer in 1940 in Prem Nagar, and soon gave Hindi cinema a variety of voices to savor and swoon over.

Noor Jehan was introduced by Ghulam Haider in Lahore. Mukesh sang for the first time in Nirdosh in 1941. Hemant Kumar Mukerjee made his debut in Hindi films in 1942. Manna Dey launched his playback career in Ram Rajya in 1943. Mohd. Rafi came into Hindi Films in 1945 with Pehle Aap. Geeta Dutt and Talat Mehemood lent their voices to celluloid in 1945. The great Lata Mangeshkar recorded her first Hindi song, "Paa lagoon kar jori re, "for Vasant Joglekar's 1947 - film Aap Ki Sewa Mein, though he came to prominence in Ghulam Haider's Majboor in 1948. However, it was only in 1949 that Lata received her first name credit, for Raj Kapoor's Barsaat.

Ironically, Lata's voice was considered too "thin" for playback singing at the time, since the playback province was presided over by full-throated, robust voices or voices with a predominant nasal twang.

After Ghulam Haider recorded with Lata Mangeshkar, there was no looking back. The golden period of playback singing had arrived. Quickly, two other singing greats, Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar, made their debuts in Chunaria and Ziddi respectively.

Alongside this explosion of phenomenal singing talent there were composers like Naushad, Madan Mohan, C. Ramachandra, Sachin Dev Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, Roshan and O.P. Nayyar. These composers, together with lyricists like Aarzoo Lucknowi, Pandit Bhushan, Kidar Sharma, Pradeep and Majrooh Sultanpuri (who made his debut in 1946 with Shahjehan) created a classic corpus of film music in 1940s, unequalled by anything that came before.