Upon reading a reference to Falguni Pathak on my facebook feed, I immediately recalled some of her popular songs and videos. I also got curious about her current whereabouts.
A quick google search revealed that she was born in March 1964 and that she started her career as a Dandiya singer. She debuted as a professional singer in 1998. She must have been 34 then. What a surprise!! She looked younger in the videos.
Falguni Pathak debuted at a time that was the golden age of Hindi pop music (non-filmy music), when singers like Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Alisha Chenoy, Asha Bhosale, Baba Sehgal, Adnan Sami Lucky Ali, Suchitra, Daler Mehndi and bands like the band of boys, viva, etc. defined the hindi pop music industry. However with time music companies that promoted such solo albums went bankrupt (Indians prefer to download music for free; music piracy and changing delivery channels; from cassettes and CD’s to digital music), and the remaining music companies adopted a safer strategy of promoting film music only.
However, the good news is that pop music does not need the support of the record/music companies anymore, because the channels of delivery of the music have undergone a significant change. Once the artist invests in a video of the song, the same can be aired on music channels and radio shows and the song can be made available for download from the artist’s web page itself. Furthermore, social media can be used to make promotions easier and cost effective.
Coming back to Falguni Pathak, currently she is based in Mumbai. She has been performing as at Dandiya venues across Mumbai and Gujarat for the past 2 decades. Given the present scenario of hindi pop music/music albums in India, the singer has been performing in stage shows, dandiya nights and tours both in India and abroad. Her music albums had made huge waves in the world of hindi pop music. She has also sung songs for bollywood movies. Even today her songs bring a smile to the lips and a feeling of nostalgia for the old days of Indie pop. Some of her songs:
This one is with Aisha Takiya.. looking so fresh and oh so pretty!!
There are more here.