Journey of an Indian Idol-2 and Musical shows

Yashashree Bhave, who is a well-known singer in Nagpur  (born August 5 in Satara, Maharashtra, India and currently living in Mumbai) is a singer, doing musical shows and have her own music and bands. She rose the popularity around the world after placing in top ten in Indian Idol 2, the Indian version of Pop Idol.

Yashashree Bhave’s mother is a well-known singer. It was she who initiated Yashashree into the art at the age of four and since then Yashashree has been learning classical music.

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The Nagpur-based Yashashree loves to listen to Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle & Kavita Krishnamurthy and also feels that good music and good compositions always survive the test of time. She loves listening to soft romantic numbers and is also fond of songs composed by Pandit Mangeshkar, especially those sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

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A regular participant in various social activities, Yashashree feels that every individual needs to do his/her bit for society.

Someone who does not believe in taking shortcuts in life, Yashashree spends a lot of time listening to classical and semi-classical music and is eagerly awaiting the day when she can listen to her own recordings.

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Yashashree’s favourite songs include: “Mera Kuch Saaman” and “Do Lafzon Ki Hai” by Asha Bhonsle.

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Yashashree got her musical inheritance from her mother since the day she was born. Her mother Mrs. Vijaya Bhave herself was Upantya Visharad in classical music and hence Yashashree started learning music since she was a toddler. Her father Mr. Vijay Bhave was an aesthete himself and hence he got his daughter into learning music since she was just 2.5 years old. Slowly but steadily Yashashree started singing a few lines in her sweet melodious voice. Her parents always encouraged her to learn music and slowly her singing journey started.

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Her father always taught her to be righteous and she still remembers his teachings; He always used to say these 2 sentences that she still hasn’t forgotten:

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It’s easy to overcome failure but it’s difficult to live with success and fame.

No matter how far you go or how successful you become but you should never forget your roots.

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People will always like you if you are down to earth and modest.

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It is because of the teachings by her parents that inspite of gathering numerous awards and fame in her career she still looks and behaves like the girl next door and is the favourite among her co-contestants, her judges and her audiences in numerous singing competitions.

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​First Professional Performance:

Yashashree gave her first professional performance on 7th June 1992, at Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande hall in Nagpur. She was just 11years old at the time but she made her mark as a child singer on every person in the packed house audience.

During the entire programme only 2 songs got “once more” and of course they were both Yashashree’s Marathi songs “Nach re Mora” and “Sasa to sasa”.

It was a local music company called “Swarashree” who gave her a chance and she made her mark on the entire audience that day.

A very famous singer named Pramila Datar was in the audience that day, she liked her performance so much that she called her after the performance and gave her some award money from her own pocket along with her blessings.

Next day it was all over the local newspapers ‘that a singing star had emerged and Yashashree was over the moon, her father was very happy but he called her and told her that this is just the beginning of your career as a singer, you still have a lot to learn and a mountain to climb professionally.

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The news spread like wild fire and she started getting calls from numerous music companies for invitations to come and sing for them. she continued singing along with her studies at school.

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When she was 14 years old, she again got a chance to perform at the same music hall where she had begun, she was singing for a local music company called “Nishad”, the songs changed according to her age and it was a difficult Bollywood song this time, “kahin deep jale kahin dil” and as usual the audience loved it and she got a repeated request from the audience to sing it once more.

She was elated at this point and started enjoying her stage performances even more.

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Now Yashashree was getting popular in Maharashtra as she started winning a lot of local competitions, interschool singing competitions and music awards.

She was getting so popular in music that the other contestants used to take out their names from the competitions since they knew it would have been really difficult to win against her but she always believed in encouraging them and giving them a fair chance.

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​The Teacher:

Mrs. Rajani Aurangabadkar, Smt.Pramilatai Sathe and Mrs.Madhavi Mhaisalkar were her teachers and mentors throughout her journey, but she still idolizes Pt.Hridaynath Mangeshkar as her guru.

​Dedication and Yearning:

Yashashree was so fond of Pt.Hrudaynath Mangeshkar that she started humming his tunes since the age of 5 and went on learning his extremely difficult tunes at a very young age, everybody in the singing industry were surprised to see her pick up very difficult tunes in no time. When she was at an age where kids generally sing nursery rhymes she was busy learning difficult tunes composed by the composer himself.

Her daily practice and dedication to learning music were all part of her dream to meet the composer in person and with god’s grace the day arrived.

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It was the same Music hall where she performed the first song in her professional singing career. It was a programme of devotional songs called “Bhav Sargam” Organised by a local temple trust “Shreeyogi Gajanan Maharaj Mandir” composed by Pt. Hrudaynath Mangeshkar himself.

A famous Musician from Nagpur Mr.Baal Hole had written a letter to Yashashree inviting her to come to the programme, Yashashree was thrilled by the idea of meeting her guru and went to the programme to catch a glimpse of her idol. While she was sitting in the audience enjoying the show with her friends and family she heard her name being called out on the microphone, it was the Maestro himself who was calling her on stage, she couldn’t believe it, she ran towards the stage making way from the crowd that had gathered to see the performance and finally reached the stage, she touched her guru’s feet, he gave her his blessings and asked her to sing a song for him, she obliged and sang one of his first compositions “Tinhi Sanja Sakhe Milalya”.

He was so happy with her melodious performance he called her and gave her a flower bouquet of honor and the entire music hall was filled with applause from the audience, Yashashree couldn’t contain her happiness and she was in tears.

This was the best day in her music career so far.

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After this event, the Pandit himself called Yashashree to come and perform as a lead singer in two of his programmes “Smaran Suresh Bhatanche” and “Shiv Kalyan Raja” with him.

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​Smaran Suresh Bhatanche:

In the year 2004 on 13th of March, on the occasion of the remembrance day of late Mr. Suresh Bhat, there was a huge programme organised by Pt.Hrudaynath Mangeshkar’s company where Yashashree got a chance to sing with her idol as well as other famous singers of the time like Mr. Ram Shewalkar. His famous compositions like “Mendichya Panavar”, “Mi Maj Harpun Basle”, “Tarun Ahe Ratra”, etc. were some of them.

She won everybody’s heart with that performance.

​Shivkalyan Raja:

It was a programme organised by Pt. Hrudaynath Mangeshkar and songs written by the famous writer Babasaheb Purandare (as he is fondly called). Yashashree sang two of their compositions namely “Shatakanchya Yashatun Uthali” and “He Hindu Narsimha” and got a lot of blessings from the big names in the industry.

“This was the biggest achievement of her life and she can’t thank god enough for making it happen”, she says.

​TV Shows:

In 2001, Yashashree won the 2nd position in an interstate singing competition in Ichalkaranji (Kolhapur) called “SaReGaMa” organised by a National TV channel Zee Marathi. Her song “Kalpavruksha Kanyesathi” in the final round of the competition filled the hall with a big round of applause from the audience.

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She also ran for other countrywide singing competitions winning several awards.

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The year 2005-2006, was a transition from Yashashree’s normal life to a life of stardom and fame.

In Oct 2005, Yashashree went to Mumbai to give audition for a countrywide singing competition Indian Idol-2 organised by a National TV channel “Sony Entertainment Television”.

There were 50,000 people who came for auditions in Mumbai itself. Yashashree was standing in the queue at 5 a.m. in the morning, her number was 3596, she finally got a chance in the afternoon at around 4 p.m. She was selected by the judges, Mr. Anu Malik, Ms. Farah Khan and Mr. Sonu Nigam were on the judge’s panel, she went on to the theatre round and cleared 3 levels of it, then she was selected for the piano round, after an extensive audition, she was shortlisted from the final 28 to the final 12 contestants.

Then there was a gala round where again she was selected and was part of the final 9 contestants. After that it was left to the online voting from the audience but she got out of the competition at that time; But she didn’t stop there, and her zeal for learning music continued.

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She has performed in more than 3000 singing programmes, she also presented a programme called “Gaani Manatli Galyatli” as the anchor on “Doordarshan Channel”.

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She has featured as a lead singer in a lot of Music CDs by famous music companies. Some of them are “Swami Gunakavya” part 1, 2 & 3, “Tera Sparsha” part 1 & 2, “Prabhu Mera Charwaha”, etc.

She has worked on various projects with the prestigious artists in the industry like Mr. Ravindra Sathe, Mrs. Uttara Kelkar, Mr. Bappi Lahiri, Mr. Ajit Kadkade, Mr. Swapnil Bandodkar, Mr. Milind Ingle to name a few.

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She has travelled to many domestic and international locations for her performances including Kuwait.

She is known as a very talented performer throughout central India.

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Recently in 2015 she has released another album on devotional songs in Hindi called “Pyara Saja Darbar”.

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She has also judged a lot of singing competitions organised by various colleges including IMA, Ramdevbaba College, G.H.Raisoni College.

During her singing career of 25yrs, she has performed in more than 3000 live shows.