Ankit Tiwari

Ankit Tiwari is an Indian playback singer, music director, composer. His career began upon meeting Pradeep Sarkar where he got a chance to work on jingles and started composing background music for television programmes. Subsequently, he was offered to compose music for Do Dooni Chaar (2010) and Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster (2011), where he started his singing career with the song he composed for the later.

In 2014, he collaborated with Mohit Suri for Ek Villain, where he composed and sung "Galliyan". For the track he received another two nominations in Filmfare Awards winning the Best Male Playback Singer Award He also recorded the song "O Yara" for the Pakistani film, Bin Roye.

1986–2007: Early life

Ankit born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His parents own a music troupe in Kanpur called "Raju Suman and Party" which performs at religious convocations. His mother is a devotional singer. Though his parents wanted him to complete his studies first, his inclination towards music led them to decide on training him professionally. He trained in classical music from Vinod Kumar Dwivedi before training in piano, Dhrupad and Western vocals. He instituted at and won several local music competitions during the time. He used to work as a production head at a radio station in Gwalior, before he moved to Mumbai in December 2007 along with his brother Ankur Tiwari.

2008–12: Beginnings and early releases

In Mumbai, Ankit Tiwari met Pradeep Sarkar who was working on a film at that time. Though the film got shelved, Sarkar gave him, along with other musicians, a chance to work on jingles. It was then he composed a couple of background scores for the television programmes. Tiwari met Habib Faisal, who offered him to compose the music for his directorial debut film Do Dooni Chaar which was then released in 2010. Later for producer Tigmanshu Dhulia he composed the theme song of Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster (2011). With this film, Ankit Tiwari made his singing debut where he rendered the song "Saheb Bada Hathila" along with Vipin Aneja.

2013

In 2012, Ankit Tiwari narrated the song "Sunn Raha Hai" to Mahesh Bhatt and Mohit Suri, the director of the film Aashiqui 2. The song was also recorded in his voice and the female-version was rendered by Shreya Ghoshal. Apart from receiving critical acclaim, the song fetched Tiwari with multiple awards and nominations. He shared his first Filmfare Award as the Best Music Director along with Mithoon and Jeet Gannguli. The team received the Best Music Director Award from other ceremonies including IIFA Awards and Zee Cine Awards. Apart from music direction, Tiwari received his second nomination in Filmfare Awards as the Best Male Playback Singer. As his second release of the year, Tiwari collaborated with Sachin Gupta—marking his first song to the tunes of another composer—for the song "Aag Ka Dariya" from Issaq.

2014 began with the film Dee Saturday Night, where two of his songs, "Falsafa Mera Falsafa" and "Jhatak Ke Nacho" went mostly unnoticed with the music listeners. He then performed the track "Kaisa Hai Dard Mera" which was composed by Ismail Darbar for Subhash Ghai's Kaanchi. Ankit Tiwari composed two tracks for the film Samrat & Co., titled "Sawaalon Mein" and a party song "Tequila Wakila" where both are rendered by Shreya Ghoshal.During the year, he performed three tracks for two of Himesh Reshammiya's films, The Xposé and Action Jackson. His rendition for the song "Sheeshe Ka Samundar" from the former received critical acclaim, while "Punjabi Mast" and "Dhoom Dhaam" from the latter received negative response from critics. In July 2014, a duet with Tulsi Kumar titled "Kuch Toh Hua Hai" was released included in the film Singham Returns. The year ended with "Dil Darbadar" from PK. Apart from all the songs released during the year, the most successful track was "Galliyan" from Ek Villain. The song was a critical and commercial success; Mohar Basu from Koimoi described the song as "the most attractive song of the album" stating "Tiwari's music and voice adds the required finesse in this song and what he has made darn great!". The song fetched him several awards for the Best Male Playback Singer including from Filmfare, Star Guild and Stardust Awards. Subsequently, he received his fourth nomination in Filmfare as the Best Music Director Award at 60th Britannia Filmfare Awards. In the year, Ankit Tiwari made his debut in a Kannada film with the song "Nillu Nillu" from Dil Rangeela composed by Arjun Janya.

Tiwari composed and sung the song "Katra Katra" along with Prakriti Kakar for the film Alone (2015). They again collaborated for the song "Bheegh Loon" from Khamoshiyan. He then composed three tracks for the film Roy, "Tu Hai Ki Nahi", "Yaara Re" which is rendered by KK and "Boond Boond" performed by Tiwari himself. The unplugged version of "Tu Hai Ki Nahi" was performed by Tulsi Kumar , along with the original received mixed reactions from critics though infusion of the whistle's tune was appreciated.

Composition

Ankit Tiwari stated that he wants to explore different genres given the right opportunity, though it shouldn't be vulgar and should hold meaning. Satyajit from Glamsham called his second composed song "Saheb Bada Hatila" from Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster a "rock-musical" arrangement. In his next composition "Sunn Raha Hai", the male version features electronic distortion guitar, zitar and drums while the female version is supported by instruments like ghatam, flute, santoor and acoustic guitar. The variance in composition was particularly applauded by critics.

In 2014, Tiwari composed "Tequila Wakila" which lies in Spanish style musical background settings of bass, drums, saxophone, trumpets and guitar while "Sawalon Mein" from the same film has a mysterious type semi-philosophical composition which is decorated with haunting piano notes and bell sounds in the background. Rajiv Vijayakar from Bollywood Hungama mentioned that Tiwari seems to be "evolving into a composer with a decent range". In the composition of the song "Galliyan" it transforms from "being slow-paced, to quickly accelerating into heavy rock music and then settling into soothing traditional Indian-themed sounds", while the unplugged version dominantly uses the acoustic guitar alongside piano. However, for his next song "Kuch Toh Hua Hai", Surabhi Redkar for Koimoi commented; "Experimentation wise, the song shows no novelty as the musical arrangements are not peculiarly impressive". According to reviewers, his last song released in 2014, "Dil Darbadar" has a huge "Galliyan" hangover and "doesn't actually fit into the scheme of things". In September 2014, Tiwari said; "People usually call me for love songs or songs of separation, which I love composing. But I don't want to restrict myself to a particular genre".

"Katra Katra" from 2015 had a similar faith with "Dil Darbadar" as the musical arrangements of both the song are similar to his earlier ventures. Redkar noted; "If only Tiwari could come up with something new [...] the only problem is that it all sounds the same". His next was a passionate and intense composition, "Bheegh Loon" which fits with the erotic thriller mood of the film. In "Tu Hai Ki Nahin" from Roy Tiwari used minimal musical arrangements mainly focusing on vocals and incorporate a whistle—first time he has used whistle as an instrument—which according to music listeners "sounds brilliant and has high recall value", while the next two tracks "Boond Boond" and "Yaara Re" were called "experimental" in terms of arrangement.

Influences

Tiwari named the singers like KK, Puerto Rican and Ricky Martin as his idols. He picked Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as one of his inspiration and dedicated a song to him from one of his composition at MTV Unplugged 4 – Episode 06. Among the actors, Tiwari expressed his desire to dub for Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor.

Popular singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan mentioned that he likes Tiwari's singing along with Arijit Singh's.

Voice and rendition

Tiwari's early two releases "Sunn Raha Hai" and "Aag Ka Dariya" represent his "young energetic and strong vocals" which was well received by the critics. "Kaisa Hai Dard Mera", despite with the similar pattern has a semi classical touch in his rendition. His one of the most successful venture "Galliyan" provided Tiwari with a high vocal range which was particularly appraised in the song though Bollywood Hungama wrote that he sings the track in a "gimmicky tenor that sounds fake". His voice and rendition was criticised in "Dil Darbadar" where IBNLive wrote; "Tiwari's choice to distort vocals using the Auto-tune software takes away the charm and rawness of a plaintive melody like "Dil Darbadar".

On 9 May 2014, Tiwari was arrested for allegedly raping his girlfriend, while his brother was booked on complaint of making threats to her life. However, the complainant failed to support the prosecution version during the trial due to lack of evidence against him and his brother. On April 2017, both Tiwari and his brother were acquitted from all charges by the Mumbai Sessions Court. .

Ankit Tiwari married Pallavi Shukla as per Hindu rituals in Kanpur on 23 February 2018. Ankit and Pallavi had an arranged marriage as both first met on the recommendation of Ankit's grandmother. He was blessed with a baby girl on 28 December 2018.

As music director

Year	Film	Song(s)	Co-Singer(s)	Writer(s)	Note/Co-Composer(s)
2010	Do Dooni Chaar	All Songs	Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Vishal Dadlani, Rakesh Pandit, Krishna, Meet Bros Anjjan		with Meet Bros Anjjan (Full Album)
2011	Sai Ki Tasveer
	Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster	"Saheb Bada Hathila"	Vipin Aneja,		Jaidev Kumar, Mukhtar Sahota, Abhishek Ray, Sumit Bhatia, Amit Sial, Anuj Garg
2013	Aashiqui 2	"Sun Raha Hai"		Sandeep Nath	Mithoon, Jeet Gannguli
		"Sun Raha Hai (Female)"	Shreya Ghoshal
2014	Samrat & Co	"Tequila Wakila"	Shreya Ghoshal	Mithoon	Mithoon
		"Samrat & Co"	Benny Dayal
		"Sawaloon Mein"	Shreya Ghoshal
	Ek Villain	"Galliyan"		Manoj Muntashir	Mithoon, Soch
		"Galliyan (Reprise)"	Shraddha Kapoor
	Singham Returns	"Kuch To Hua Hai"	Tulsi Kumar	Sandeep Nath, Abhyendra Kumar Upadhyay	Meet Bros Anjjan, Jeet Gannguli, Yo Yo Honey Singh
	PK	"Dil Darbadar"		Manoj Muntashir	Shantanu Moitra, Ajay-Atul
2015	Alone	Katra Katra"	Prakriti Kakar	Abhyendra Kumar Upadhyay	Mithoon, Jeet Gannguli, Raghav Sachar
	Khamoshiyan	"Bheegh Loon"	Prakriti Kakar		Jeet Gannguli, Bobby-Imran, Naved Jafar, Randeep Mukherjee
		"Bheegh Loon (Remix)"
		"Bheegh Loon (Male)"
	Roy	"Tu Hai Ki Nahi"			Amaal Mallik, Meet Bros Anjjan
		"Boond Boond"
		"Yaara Re"	KK	Sandeep Nath
		"Tu Hai Ki Nahi (Unplugged)"	Tulsi Kumar	Abhyendra Kumar Upadhyay
	Mr X	"Tu Jo Hain"		Manoj Muntashir	Jeet Gannguli
		"Alif Se"	Neeti Mohan	Abhyendra Kumar Upadhyay
		"Saad Sukhrana"
2016	Airlift	"Dil Cheez Tujhe Dedi"	Arijit Singh	Kumaar	Amaal Mallik
	Ishq Junoon	"Tu Hi Mera Raab Hai"	Sukriti Kakar	Sanjeev Chaturvedi	Jeet Gannguli, Vardan Singh, Anjjan Bhattacharya, Sanjeev-Darshan
	Rustom	"Tay Hain"		Manoj Muntashir	Jeet Gannguli, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Raghav Sachar
		"Jab Tum Hote Ho"	Shreya Ghoshal
	Rocky Handsome	"Alfazoon Ki Tarah"		Abhyendra Kumar Upadhyay	Bombay Rockers, Sunny Bawra, Inder Bawra
		"Alfazoon Ki Tarah (Reprise)"	Shreya Ghoshal, John Abraham
	Baaghi	"Agar Tu Hota"			Meet Bros, Amaal Mallik, Manj Musik
	Junooniyat	"Ishq Di Laat"	Tulsi Kumar	Manoj Muntashir	Meet Bros, Jeet Gannguli
	Tum Bin II	"Teri Fariyaad"	Jagjit Singh, Rekha Bhardwaj	Shakeel Azmi, Faaiz Anwar	Original by: Nikhil-Vinay
		"Teri Fariyaad (Extended Version)"
		"Ishq Mubarak"	Shubhashu Kesharwani	Manoj Muntashir
		"Ishq Mubarak (Redux)"	Arijit Singh, Zack Knight
		"Dekh Lena"	Tulsi Kumar
		"Dekh Lena (Unplugged)"	Tulsi Kumar
		"Tum Bin"
		"Dil Nawaziyaan"	Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Payal Dev
		"Masta"	Vishal Dadlani, Neeti Mohan
		"Ki Kariye Nachna Aaonda Nahin"	Neha Kakkar, Raftaar, Hardy Sandhu
		"Jager Bomb"	Dwayne Bravo, Harshi Mad
	Beiimaan Love	"Pyaar De"		Abhyendra Kumar Upadhyay	Manj Musik, Raghav Sachar, Sanjeev-Darshan, Asad Khan
2017	Baadshaho	"Piya More"	Mika Singh, Neeti Mohan	Manoj Muntashir	Tanishk Bagchi, Kabir Cafe, Abhijit Vaghani
2018	Aiyaary	"Yaad Hai"	Palak Muchhal		Rochak Kohli
	FryDay	"Bade Choten"	Mika Singh	Anurag Bhomia	Millind Gaba, Roshin-Kaizad, Gunwant Sen
	Kashi in Search of Ganga	"Wo Rishta"	Deepali Sathe	Abhyendra Kumar Upadhyay	Vipin Patwa, Raj Ashoo, DJ Emenes
		"Wo Rishta (Reprise)"	Deepali Sathe
		"Betahasha"	Sonu Nigam, Palak Mucchal
2019	Amavas	Bheege Bheege	Sunidhi Chauhan	Anurag Bhomia	Sanjeev-Darshan, Asad Khan, Abhijit Bhagani
	Prassthanam	Dil Dariyan	Deepali Sathe		Farhad Samji, Vikram Montrose
	Romeo Akbar Walter	Maa		Prince Dubey	Sohail Sen, Shabbir Ahmed, Raj Ashoo
	Batla House	Rula Diya	Dhvani Bhanushali		Tanishk Bagchi, Rochak Kohli
2020	Malang	Phir Na Mile Kabhi			Mithoon, Asim Azhar, Ved Sharma, Adnan Dhol, The Fusion Project
	Sadak 2	Tumse Hi	Alia Bhatt	TBA	Jeet Gannguli, Rachita Arora, Sachet-Parampara

As playback singer

List of songs recorded by Ankit Tiwari