Nikhita Gandhi

Nikhita Gandhi is an Indian playback singer whose bright, agile voice has become a fixture of Hindi film soundtracks while she simultaneously records in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi and Kannada. Born on 1 October 1991 in Kolkata, West Bengal, she grew up in a mixed Bengali and Punjabi household and, unusually for a leading playback voice, qualified as a dentist before music became her full-time calling. Fans searching for her age will find she is 34 as of 2026, and searches for her real name simply return Nikhita Gandhi, the name she has always performed under.

Her childhood in Kolkata was steeped in the arts: she trained in Odissi dance and Hindustani classical music for roughly twelve years alongside her regular schooling at La Martiniere for Girls. That grounding in raga and rhythm shaped an instinctive, expressive singer, even as her family expected her to follow the professional path her parents had taken. The tension between a stable medical career and an uncertain artistic one defines the early chapters of her story, and she resolved it only after a chance encounter with A. R. Rahman during an Indo-German music exchange programme opened a door into film music.

Since her breakthrough in the mid-2010s, Gandhi has lent her voice to some of the most-played songs of the era, from the yearning title track of Raabta to the flirtatious energy of The Breakup Song. She has also stepped in front of the camera on television talent shows and released independent singles, building a public profile that extends well beyond the recording booth. Widely regarded as one of the versatile young playback voices of her generation, she continues to record across languages and to tour as a live performer.

Away from the studio, Gandhi is often described as easy-going and grounded, with reported hobbies as simple as playing carrom and travelling. She has spoken about balancing the discipline of a scientific education with the freedom of music, and her dentistry degree remains a frequent talking point in interviews. Reported to follow Hinduism and to have grown up amid Bengali and Punjabi influences, she cites A. R. Rahman as her formative musical mentor and lists artists such as Usha Uthup, Rekha Bhardwaj and Alicia Keys among her inspirations. She has also lent her name to social-welfare and charitable causes.

Estimates of Nikhita Gandhi's net worth circulate widely on celebrity-finance sites, with a commonly repeated figure of around $5 million — but this should be treated as an unverified estimate, as such numbers vary considerably between sources and are rarely confirmed by the artist. Her income is understood to come from film playback fees, independent releases, live concerts and stage shows, brand associations and, more recently, label and management partnerships. As with most playback singers, her earnings scale with the volume of songs recorded and the reach of the films she features in rather than any single headline deal.

Nikhita Gandhi represents a generation of Indian playback singers who trained formally, embraced multiple languages, and moved fluidly between film soundtracks and independent music. Coming up through A. R. Rahman's academy and breaking out on the strength of technically demanding songs, she helped normalise the idea of the classically trained, science-educated artist thriving in mainstream Bollywood. Songs like "The Breakup Song", "Qaafirana" and the "Raabta" title track remain streaming staples, and her willingness to record in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi and Kannada has kept her relevant across India's regional music markets rather than tying her to a single industry.