Jaspinder Narula
A playback singer known for "Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha", trained in classical music and with a PhD in Hindustani music, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2025.
Jaspinder Narula’s song “Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha” made her a household name in 1998. By then she had been singing on stage for more than twenty years. In 2025 she was named for the Padma Shri in the field of art, from Maharashtra [1].
A child singer
Jaspinder Narula was born on 14 November 1966 into a musical family: her father, Kesar Singh Narula, was a Punjabi music composer, and her mother a folk singer [2]. She also trained with gurus of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana [2]. She first toured abroad as a child in 1974, and HMV released her first record of devotional songs in 1975 [2].
Studies and films
She finished her bachelor’s, master’s and MPhil degrees in music before entering films, and later earned a PhD in Hindustani classical music from Delhi University in 2008 [2]. Jagjit Singh gave her her first film break [2]. Hits followed in films such as Virasat, Mohabbatein and Bunty Aur Babli, and she won the Filmfare award for best female playback singer for “Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha” [2].
By 2024 she had completed fifty years of singing, with songs for about 350 films and thousands more outside cinema, across Sufi, devotional, Punjabi folk and classical styles [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2025: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2025: citation for Jaspinder Narula — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
Last updated . First draft prepared with AI assistance; reviewed and fact-checked by a person before publishing. Report a correction
