Singer, Entrepreneur, Animal Rescuer — Meet Lalitya Munshaw

- ADVERTISEMENT - There are singers who fit neatly into a genre, and then there is Lalitya Munshaw — a voice that moves easily between classical ragas, ghazals, Sufi verses, Bollywood melodies, bhajans and folk without ever sounding out of place in any of them. A trained Hindustani classical vocalist and the founder of Red Ribbon Entertainment and Re n Raga Studios, Munshaw sat down with ITV Gold for a candid conversation about music, family and the causes closest to her heart, ahead of her performances in the U.S. Munshaw's musical foundation lies in the Agra gharana of Hindustani classical music, a rigorous tradition she trained in for years before it opened the door to everything else she sings today. But long before formal training entered the picture, there was her father. He was not a trained musician himself, she said, yet he was the one who first put music in her hands and in her heart — teaching her, among other things, the timeless prayer 'Allah tero naam, Ishwar tero naam, sabko sanmati de Bhagwan.' In her telling, he remains her first guru — not in technique, but in spirit. It was also her father who took her from Ahmedabad to Bombay, a move that would define her career. There, he introduced her to music composer Kalyanji Anandji and singer Anup Jalota, connections that gave a young Munshaw her earliest real exposure to the professional music world. That leap — from a home in Gujarat to the heart of India's film and music industry — became the turning point that eventually led her to sing for films, cut devotional albums, and perform on concert stages across India and around the world, at times drawing crowds of up to 20,000 people at private parties, corporate shows, public festivals and government events. - ADVERTISEMENT - Her range on record reflects the same range she described in conversation. She has sung garba during Navratri, recorded the devotional 'Gan Ganpatey Namo Namah,' and even compiled a ghazal album that reads like a who's who of contemporary playback singing — with artists including Arijit Singh and Sonu Nigam among the voices who came together for the project. In 2008, Munshaw launched her own record label, Red Ribbon Entertainment, dedicated to promoting Indian music around the globe. She went on to set up Mumbai-based recording studios, Re n Raga, which she says have hosted recording sessions for major films including Singham, Mary Kom, Gangs of Wasseypur and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. It's a rare arc — vocalist to label founder to studio owner — built, as she described it, on the same discipline her early training instilled in her. But ask her what she considers her true calling, and Munshaw doesn't point to a stage or a studio. It's rescuing animals. Her love for strays and abandoned pets runs deep, and it turned personal recently with the loss of her own pet, whom she'd named Elvis Presley. She speaks of him gently, without dwelling on the grief — he isn't gone, she says, simply living on in her heart, present with her still. That blend of resilience and warmth ran through the entire conversation — an artist equally at home discussing riyaz and studio balance sheets as she is talking about the pet she couldn't save but will never stop loving. Singer, entrepreneur and someone who clearly believes in giving back, Lalitya Munshaw's journey continues to evolve, on and off the stage. We wish her the very best for her upcoming performances and everything that lies ahead.