Sharmistha Chatterjee is a highly versatile singer. Having trained as a Hindustani Classical Vocalist, she works actively as a playback singer for the Indian Films, TV and Advertising Industry. Her range of singing and mastery over different musical styles has led to her participation on recordings and performances with some of the most sought-after artistes in the world of jazz and fusion. She is the lead vocalist of the famous South Asian Progressive Rock Band, “Mekaal Hasan Band “ originally from Lahore and the very first and only Indian woman to be the lead vocalist of a premier Pakistani Band. She is also the first Indian singer to be featured in Coke Studio Pakistan Season 8 with Mekaal Hasan Band performing two popular songs “Sayon” and “Kinaray” which won hearts across borders and throughout the world. Mekaal Hasan Band’s third album, “Andholan” features Sharmistha’s vocals on all the eight songs of the album. The song “Ghunghat”, a Baba Bulle Shah kalaam, topped charts in Pakistan and won the top song of 2015 according to Express Tribune polls. Post the album release in and her Coke Studio performances, Sharmistha traveled with the band twice on a North American tour, performing in various festivals and prestigious venues across Canada and  USA both in 2015 and 2016. The festivals she performed in included “South Asian Mosaic Festival “ , “Surrey  Fusion Festival “ , “Hill Side Festival Guelph “ alongside reputed venues like “Joe’s Pub , Public Theatre , New York “ , “Red Room , Berklee College of Music” , Boston and several other venues in Toronto , Chicago , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Denver and many more . She also features as the lead vocalist in Grammy nominated Jazz pianist Louiz Bank’s Indo-Jazz fusion group “Ganga Shakti” and has and recorded with the group and performed across several venues in India. She has also been on lead vocals with India’s greatest drummer, Ranjit Barot’s world/jazz/fusion band called “Ranjit Barot & The Resistance”. As live performer for both Bollywood and Fusion Concerts, she has traveled within India and abroad. More...

 

Sharmistha’s active involvement in the field of fusion music and her natural ability to fuse her style of singing with the different styles of world music earned her an invitation to perform at the prestigious Jazzaar Concerts 2010, Aarau Switzerland (http://www.jazzaar.com), where she not only featured as a solo artist in various compositions but also featured as a Soprano vocalist in the Aaragau Youth Ensemble . She had the opportunity to work with maestros from both Jazz, Hindustani and Carnatic Classical music. Some of the artists Sharmistha has worked with are Lew Soloff, Reggie Hamilton, Airto Moreira, Marcus Hauser, Danny Gottleib, Fritz Renold, Manrico Padovani, Pt Anindo Chatterjee, Ghatam Giridhar Udupa and many more. 

 

Born to a Bengali family in Shyamnagar near Calcutta (Kolkata), Sharmistha graduated with an Honours Degree in English Literature from the Calcutta University and thereafter completed her Master's Degree in the same subject. She continued with her academics and graduated with a First Class Bachelor’s Degree in Education, from Loreto College under Calcutta University. 

 

Sharmistha shifted base to Mumbai, thereafter to pursue her musical career in the Hindi film industry. She started off by singing advertising commercials and moved on to doing playbacks for Hindi feature films and soundtracks. She has extensively worked as a session artist in prestigious projects like ‘Saawariya’, a film by the famous producer and director Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her first song as a playback singer “Paas Aaya Kyun” was released in the year 2007, music by Mithoon for the movie “Aggar”. She continued to lend her voice for Bollywood movie songs such as “Kubul” from the film “Vaada Raha”, music by Monty Sharma, “Chahatein “ from the movie “Darr @The Mall and “Dusokute” from the critically acclaimed “Margarita With a Straw “. She has also lent her versatile vocal skills on many Bollywood film soundtracks such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Ek Tha Tiger, Shivaay, Gulaab Gang, Gundey, Three Idiots, Fan and many more. 

 

Sharmistha is also the voice behind some of the most popular and successful advertising jingles with famous brands such as Frooti featuring Shah Rukh Khan, 7Up, Set Wet - Buri Nazar Wale, Coca-Cola Bidaai Featuring Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Malhotra, Saffola and many more. The most recent “Amul - Mother to Mother”  jingle is also sung by her. She also collaborated and performed with the band “Orange Street “ in India’s one of the most popular musical shows on national television called “Coke Studio at MTV”. 

 

Her journey continues...