ONE OF THE MOST versatile and talented Rabindrasangeet & folk singer, Iman Chakraborty has made a mark in the world of Indian music. Her stage presence and quality of voice has been widely appreiciated ever since she won the National Award for the Best Singer category for the song Tumi Jaake Bhalobasho from the Prosenjit Chatterjee-starrer Bengali movie Praktan. Iman started learning music at a very tender age. The award not only brought her appreciation from the audience but also established her as the Best female playback singer. During her growing up days she learnt music from her late mother Trishna Chakraborty and inclined towards literary works of Rabindranath Tagore. Besides Rabindrasangeet she has also learnt Hindusthani Classical music and folk songs from different part of India. She is regular on television and stage.
In an interview to The Hindustan Times when asked about her feelings, she said, “It’s an out of the world feeling. As I was predominantly a Rabindrasangeet singer, when Anupam da (Anupam Roy, the composer and the lyricist of the song, who was also awarded the National Award for the Best Lyricist) gave me the song, I was jittery about it. He told me to live with the song for 10 days and inspired me to add my own rendition to it. That’s how it was made; the rest is history. I want thank those people who didn’t believe in me, who have hurt me, because it’s the pain that I’ve received from them that helped me reach this place and even justify the feeling and the loss that was required for the song.”
Hailing from a small town, Liluah, in Howrah she had been through much ups and downs while pursuing her career in music. While recording the song she was in deep pain as she had lost her mother recently, however she feels that all these obstacles have actually helped her strengthen her emotions that reflected in her music. Iman is currently doing a PhD on Satyajit Ray’s background score from Rabindra Bharati University. Iman’s love for Ranbindra Sangit is paramount and she could never think of a life without music.