Monali Thakur (born 3 November 1985) is an Indian singer and actress. She is the recipient of several awards including a National Film Award for the song “Moh Moh Ke Dhaage” from the film Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) and a Filmfare Award for the song “Sawaar Loon” from the Film “Lootera” (2013). She was a judge of Zee TV’s singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs 2014. She was also an “expert” on Colors TV’s Rising Star for two consecutive seasons.

Thakur was born on 3 November 1985 in a Bengali brahmin musical family in Calcutta (nowKolkata). Her father Shakti Thakur was a professional singer and actor in Bengali film industry and her sister Mehuli Thakur is a playback singer in Bengal. She has learnt hip-hop and Bharatanatyam and is also a trained salsa dancer.

An alumnus of The Future Foundation School and St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, Thakur started singing in school and college competitions and performing at local functions, In 1999, she sang the first song of her career in the film Chena Chena under the musical direction of Anupam Dutta and penned by legendary lyricist Pulak Bandyopadhyay. It was a Bengali children song titled “Choi Choi Choi Tipi Tipi”. The same year, she recorded the title track of Bengali serial Shri Ramkrishna. She received the Best Playback Singer Award at Anandalok Awards for it when she was 14. She rose to popularity after placing ninth in Indian Idol 2.

She had to struggle even after Indian Idol to get a strong foothold in the music industry. She got an offer from music director Pritam Chakraborty to sing two songs for the Bollywood film Race in 2008 – “Khwab Dekhe” (Sexy Lady) and “Zara Zara Touch Me”. She was originally scheduled to sing only one song, but her first recording impressed the film’s directors Abbas–Mustan enough for them to book her a second. “Zara Zara Touch Me” was enormously successful, becoming the fourth-most-played song on Indian radio during the first half of 2008. She also got nominated for an IIFA Award for Best Female Playback and an Apsara Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song “Zara Zara Touch Me”. Monali’s first large format live concert was at Powai Sarvajanin Durgotsav in 2011.

She was a judge in the Bengali music reality show Bengali Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs for two years. She also appeared in the Bengali show Key Hobe Biggest Fan and was part of Coke Studio.

In 2014, Thakur won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song “Sawaar Loon” from the film Lootera. In March 2016, she received the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song “Moh Moh Ke Dhaage” from the film Dum Laga Ke Haisha and earned a nomination at the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the same. In 2018, Thakur appeared in the Zee5 show Lockdown along with Mickey Singh which was produced by Badshah (rapper)’s production house Afterhours. They recreated two tracks, “Jiya Jale” and “Gur Nalon Ishq Meetha”. Apart from these Monali has also sung several super-hits like “Cham Cham” song from 2016 film Baaghi which has garnered more than 1 Billion views on YouTube as of January 2022 and The Title Track of 2018 film “Badrinath Ki Dulhania” which she sung along with Neha Kakkar, Dev Negi and Ikka Singh, has been watched more than 800 Million times on Youtube as of January 2022. Thakur has also released her singles, “Tamanna” (2018), “Shy Mora Saiyaan” (2018), “O Re Naseeba” (2019), “Pani Pani Re” (2019), “Dugga Elo” (2019) and her latest Single is “Dil Ka Fitoor” (2020). In 2020 Thakur has sung 2 more singles: “Aaina” along with Ranajoy Bhattacharjee and “Elo Maa Dugga Thakur” along with Sonu Nigam.

Thakur married Maik Richter, a restaurateur based in Switzerland, in 2017. She met Richter during a backpacking trip to Switzerland – he was her Airbnb host. Thakur made the marriage public only in June 2020 after releasing her single “Dil Ka Fitoor” which features her along with Maik.

As a child, she appeared in a Bengali television show, Aalokito ek Indu, in which she played the lead role Indubala. It was followed by two telefilms, including Sudeshna Roy’s Phagune Agun, in which she was seen as Ruman. She made her acting debut in Raja Sen’s Bengali film Krishnakanter Will, in which she played Bhromor. In 2014, she made her Bollywood debut in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Lakshmi. The film is about human trafficking and child prostitution and Thakur plays a 15-year-old girl who gets trapped in it. She was seen in a guest appearance as a Kashmiri Girl in 2014 film PK. Thakur has also a played a cameo role in film Secret Superstar released in 2017. She will be seen in Abbas Tyrewala’s multistarrer Mango. She also acted in a short film titled Jangle Bells along with Namit Das. The film came out on Christmas of 2015.