Sneha Khanwalkar (born 28 April 1983) is an Indian music director who works in Hindi films.[1] She is best known for her score for the film, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, and also for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1, Part 2.[1][2] She had been nominated in Best Music Director category at the 58th Filmfare Awards for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 & Part 2 (credited as music director of Gangs of Wasseypur).[3] She is only the second woman to gain a nomination in this category 28 years after Usha Khanna.[4][5]

Sneha Khanwalkar
Born (1983-04-28) 28 April 1983 (age 41)
NationalityIndian
OccupationFilm score composer
Years active2004–present
Spouse
(m. 2019)

Early life and education

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Born and brought up in Indore, where her mother's family was entrenched in the Gwalior gharana of Hindustani classical music, through which she learned music as a child.[6]

During her HSC vacations, she did an animation course and art direction course. In 2001, her family moved to Mumbai, with an aim of her joining an engineering college, but instead she started working in animation followed by art direction before deciding on music direction as a career, after rediscovering her childhood passion for music.[1]

Career

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In 2004, she scored the movie The Hope, which competed at the Internationales Filmfest Emden in Germany.[7] Meanwhile, she also did the title track for Ruchi Narain's film, KAL – Yesterday and Tomorrow (2005), though her big break came when she composed music for the 2007 movie Go, produced by Ram Gopal Varma, and also got to compose a song for Sarkar Raj (2008).[8]

In 2008, she won accolades for her score for the film, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! for which she travelled through rural North India, especially Haryana, where she visited the Raagini music festival, while researching for the film's music, eventually she created a hit soundtrack, embellished with Haryanvi musical influences.[1][9]

She was the music director of Anurag Kashyap's celebrated movie Gangs of Wasseypur (Part 1 & Part 2), for which she was nominated in Best Music Director category at the 58th Filmfare Awards.

Sound Trippin

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She was also the host of a popular music-based MTV mini-series called Sound Trippin[10] in which she travels to places like Punjab, Banaras, Yellapur (North Canara, Karnataka), Goa, Leh, etc. collecting local sounds both ambient and everyday singers to local musicians, and creating a final piece of music that resonates the feel and the sounds from that location.[11][12] The show is shot by Babble Fish Productions[13]

Episode 1 – Tung Tung - Punjab (Qila Raipur Rural olympics)
Episode 2 – Ram Ram - Benaras
Episode 3 – Yere Yere - Yellapura (North Kanara, Karnataka)
Episode 4 – Susegaado - Goa
Episode 5 – Phinger Song - Kanpur
Episode 6 – Review of All Episodes
Episode 7 – Majuli(Assam)
Episode 8 – Scrap Rap - Dharavi (A Slum in Mumbai)
Episode 9 – Ghumma - Mumbai
Episode 10 – Babu - Kolkata
Episode 11 – Ju Ju Leh - Leh

Filmography

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Movie music composer

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Year Film Note(s)
2006 Undisputed Short film
2005 Kal: Yesterday and Tomorrow One song
2007 Go All songs
2008 Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!
2010 Love Sex Aur Dhokha
2011 Bheja Fry 2 One song
2012 Gangs of Wasseypur (Part 1 & Part 2) All songs
Nominated - Filmfare Award for Best Music Director[14] (for the music of both parts)
Supermen of Malegaon Documentary
2014 Dishkiyaoon Two songs
Youngistaan
Khoobsurat Four songs
2015 Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! One song along with Dibakar Banerjee
Singh is Bling One song
2017 Hanuman Da' Damdaar All songs
Also provided the voice for the character "Seeti"
2018 Manto Four songs
2020 Ghoomketu Two songs
Trance As a playback singer for one track
Malayalam film
Raat Akeli Hai All songs
2022 Sharmaji Namkeen
Chup: Revenge of The Artist One song
Mister Mummy Four songs
2024 Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 One song
CTRL All songs

Web series music composer

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Year Title Platform Notes
2020 REJCTX ZEE5 Theme Music
2021 Dhindora YouTube Original track
2022 London Files Voot Original & Background Score
2023 Psuedo Saiyaan Amazon Prime Video Cinema Marte Dum Tak
Star Wars: Visions Disney+ Episode: "The Bandits of Golak"

TV Show

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Songs of the Twisted Road: Sneha Khanwalkar is Bollywood's third ever and hippest woman music composer, Tehelka, 9 May 2009, archived from the original on 22 March 2012, retrieved 13 February 2010
  2. ^ "RGV is moody: Sneha Khanwalkar", Times of India, 22 September 2007, archived from the original on 31 December 2008, retrieved 18 January 2009
  3. ^ "58th Idea Filmfare Awards nominations are here!". filmfare.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  4. ^ Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (10 July 2014). Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. Routledge. ISBN 9781135943257 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "Twinkle to Tabu: 10 Women Making Bollywood Look Good - NDTV Movies". NDTVMovies.com. 20 February 2015. Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  6. ^ "I still haven't cracked the hit part: Sneha Khanwalkar - Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  7. ^ Bhayani, Viral (7 June 2004), "'The Hope' chosen for German film festival", Indo-Asian News Service, archived from the original on 13 June 2011, retrieved 18 January 2009
  8. ^ Patrao, Michael (30 September 2007), "Music bytes", Deccan Herald, archived from the original on 21 August 2008.
  9. ^ MTV Sound Trippin, MTV India, archived from the original on 29 April 2012, retrieved 3 May 2012
  10. ^ "Sneha Khanwalkar to host 'Sound Trippin' in MTV : Glossary – India Today". Indiatoday.intoday.in. 14 April 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  11. ^ "Super Sonic Travel: Sneha Khanwalkar's new show Sound Trippin." Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 22. 2 June 2012.
  12. ^ "MTV Sound Trippin". Mtv.in.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  13. ^ "TV Review: MTV Sound Trippin'". Mumbai Boss. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  14. ^ "58th Idea Filmfare Awards nominations are here!". Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
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