Pankaj Udhas belonged to a family of Zamindars near Rajkot in Gujarat.
He found a passion for music by observing his father, who used to play the dilruba as a hobby, and his older brothers who were stage performers.
After seeing his interest in music, his father decided to enroll him at the Sangeet Academy in Rajkot, where he took training for four years.
At the age of 13, he learned Hindustani vocal classical music under the tutelage of Ghulam Qadir Khan Sahab.
He also took a formal training in music from Navrang Nagpurkar, a singer from the Gwalior Gharana.
He performed on stage for the first time during the Sino-Indian War in 1962. In the event, he sang the song “Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo” and received Rs 51 as a reward for his performance.
After making his debut as a playback singer with the film ‘Kamna’ (1970), he faced tough competition from Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Mukesh in the film industry.
When he didn’t get much opportunities to work as a playback singer in the films, he started singing and recording ghazals and gained immense popularity.
After his initial struggling period in ghazal singing for around 4 years, he shifted to Canada and did few shows over there. However, he came back to India after spending 10 months there.
Farida Udhas and Pankaj Udhas share a heartwarming love story that began when Pankaj was studying in college and Farida was working as an air hostess. They first met each other at one of Pankaj’s neighbor’s houses in 1979 and later started dating.
Initially, Farida’s parents did not accept their relationship because of their different backgrounds; however, Pankaj later persuaded them to agree to their marriage.
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