Anuradha Paudwal

Updated: October 21, 2026

Birth Name: Alka Nadkarni
Date of Birth: 27 October 1954
Age: 71
Origin: Karwar, Karnataka, India
Gender: Female
Height (cm): 165
Religion: Hinduism
Nationality: Indian
Husband: Arun Paudwal (married 1969, died 1991)
Children: Aditya Paudwal (son, died 2020), Kavita Paudwal (daughter)
Occupation: Playback singer, bhajan singer, politician
Genres: Filmi, bhajan, devotional

Biography & Career:
Anuradha Paudwal, born Alka Nadkarni, is an Indian playback singer whose soft, melodic voice defined Bollywood romance in the late 1980s and 1990s and later became one of the most loved sounds in devotional music. Any biography of the artist starts with an unlikely beginning: born into a Konkani-speaking family where singing was frowned upon, the young girl had no formal training and learned by listening to Lata Mangeshkar on the radio for hours. Although the birth place lies on the coast of Karnataka, childhood and early career unfolded in Mumbai. A supportive mother sent her to a local music school, the teenager kept practising, and in 1973 the first film recording arrived with a Sanskrit shloka in Abhimaan.

Over the next two decades, that voice appeared in hundreds of movies, and the songs recorded for T-Series made the singer a household name across India. Duets with Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan topped the charts and brought four Filmfare Awards along with a National Film Award. With thousands of recordings in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Odia and other languages, Anuradha Paudwal later shifted the focus to bhajans and became the voice of countless devotional albums. The Padma Shri followed in 2017, and in 2024 a new chapter began in politics.

The husband name fans most often search for is Arun Paudwal, a music composer who once assisted S. D. Burman. The marriage date is recorded as 1969, and it also explains the name change: Alka Nadkarni became Anuradha Paudwal after the wedding, taking a new first name along with her husband’s surname, as the singer herself confirmed on The Kapil Sharma Show in 2021. Since the film debut came four years later, the whole career was built under the new name. The couple stayed together until Arun Paudwal passed away in 1991. There is no second husband name to share, as the singer never remarried. As for children, the couple had a son and daughter: son Aditya Paudwal, a composer who died in 2020, and daughter Kavita Paudwal, who continued the family tradition as a singer.

Anuradha Paudwal Movies:
Abhimaan
Hero
Ram Lakhan
Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka
Aashiqui
Dil
Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin
Sadak
Beta

Anuradha Paudwal Best Songs:
Dhak Dhak Karne Laga
Nazar Ke Saamne
Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin
Tu Meri Zindagi Hai
Main Duniya Bhula Doonga
Mujhe Neend Na Aaye
Tu Mera Jaanu Hai
Hum Tere Bin Kahin Reh Nahi Paate
Shiv Amritwani
Gayatri Mantra