Rajkumari Dubey
| Rajkumari | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rajkumari Dubey |
| Born | 1924 Varanasi, British India |
| Died | 2000 India |
| Genres | playback singing |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocalist |
| Years active | 1934–1977 |
Rajkumari Dubey (1924–2000), better known by her first name, Rajkumari, was an Indian playback singer who worked in Hindi cinema of 1930s and 1940s. Best known for her songs, "Sun Bairi Baalam Sach Bol Re" in Bawre Nain (1950), "Ghabrekar Ke Jo Hum Sir Ko Takraayan" in Mahal (1949) and "Najariya Ki Maari" in Pakeezah (1972).
Born in Benaras (Varanasi), She joined the Hindi cinema at age 11, as a child actor in Radhe Shyam aur Zulmi Hans (1932), thereafter she worked in theatre for few years, before returning to films, joining Prakash Pictures as actor and singer. She had much higher voice than the leading singers of time, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Amirbai Karnataki and Shamshad Begum. In the next two decades she sang for 100 films, till early 1950s, when Lata Mangeshkar changed the scene.
Rajkumari was born in 1924. She never really had the opportunity to learn to sing, but was always supported by her family. She was just 10 years old when she recorded her first song for HMV in 1934 and she started her career as a stage artiste. Vijay Bhatt and Shankar Bhatt of Prakash Pictures spotted her during one of her shows. They liked her voice and persuaded her to discontinue acting on stage as it would spoil her voice (In those days, there were no mikes and you had to shout to be heard). So she quit theatre, and became an employee of Prakash Pictures as an actress and singer.
Rajkumari's first film with them was a Hindi-Gujarati bilingual called Sansar Leela Nayi Duniya. She got important roles in films like Aankh Ka Tara and Turki Sher (1933). She was the heroine Bhakt Ke Bhagwan and Insaaf Ki Topi (1934). In those days she often acted opposite Zakaria Khan (late actor Amjad Khan's father, whose screen name was Jayant). She also used to sing for popular music director Lallubhai. He gave music to films starring Rajkumari ji like Nai Duniya alias Sacred Scandal (1934) (Sansaar Leela in Gujarati version), Laal Chitthi alias Red Letter(1935), Bombay Mail(1935), Bambai Ki Sethaani (1935)and Shamsheer-e-Arab(1935). She began getting fed up with having to watch on her figure and decided to stick to just singing as a career. After she quit Prakash Pictures, she began playback singing for actresses like Ratnamala, Shobhana Samarth, etc. and soon she became the First Female Playback Singer of Indian Cinema.
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