Palak Muchhal

Palak Muchhal was born on 30 March 1992 into a Maheshwari Marwari family in Indore. Her mother, Amita Muchhal, is a homemaker and her father, Rajkumar Muchhal, works for a private firm.^[5] She has a younger brother, Palash Muchhal.^[6] She did her schooling from Queens College Indore. In May 2013 Muchhal stated that she was doing her final year of B.Com from a college in Indore.^[7]

Muchhal became a member of Kalyanji-Anandji Little Star, a group of young singers, when she was four years old.^[8] During the Kargil War of 1999, when aged seven, she spent a week singing at shops in her home city, Indore, to raise funds for the families of deceased Indian soldiers. Her efforts received substantial coverage in Indian media and she raised ₹25,000 (US$810). Later that year, she sang to raise funds for victims of the 1999 Odisha cyclone.^[9]

Her decision to use her voice to help others was triggered when she saw poor children using their clothes to clean train compartments.^[5] Around the same time, teachers at Nidhi Bal Vinay Mandir, an Indore-based school, approached Muchhal and her parents with a request for a charity show to raise funds for their pupil, Lokesh, who was suffering from a congenital heart defect. Lokesh's father was an impoverished footwear shop-owner and was unable to afford the high cost of heart surgery. Muchhal and her parents agreed to arrange a show and in March 2000, she used a street vendor's cart as a stage for the event and collected ₹51,000 (US$1,600) towards the cost of surgery. The attendant publicity prompted Bangalore-based cardiologist, Devi Prasad Shetty, to operate on Lokesh free of charge. Muchhal's parents advertised in local newspapers to promote donations toward heart surgery for children like Lokesh. The outcome of this was a list of 33 children in need of heart surgery.^[10]

A series of charity shows were arranged later in that year, from which ₹225,000 (US$7,200) were raised. This money was used to provide heart surgery for five children in Bangalore and Bhandari Hospital Indore. To help Muchhal in her efforts to save lives of children at relatively low cost, T. Choithram Hospital of Indore halved the cost of surgery from ₹80,000 (US$2,600) to ₹40,000 (US$1,300) and one of its surgeons, Dhiraj Gandhi, decided to waive his fee for cases brought in by Muchhal.^[8]

Since 2000, Muchhal has travelled extensively in India and abroad for her charity show, which is billed in Hindi as "Dil Se Dil Tak" ("From heart to heart") and in English as "Save Little Hearts". Her younger brother, Palash, performs in the same shows with the intent of raising funds for children who have kidney ailments.^[11] On average, Muchhal sings around 40 songs in each show which includes popular Bollywood songs, Ghazals and Bhajans. Muchhal can sing in 17 different languages which include Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Odia, Assamese, Rajasthani, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Sindhi and Malayalam.^[5]

Palak was also a star at Maheboob College, Secunderabad and sang there. Both Palak and Palash sang on different occasions. By this they were brought up and built their career.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Muchhal raised around one million rupees for the victims of 2001 Gujarat earthquake.^[12] In July 2003, Muchhal offered financial assistance through her charity funds to the parents of a two-year-old Pakistani girl who had a hole in the heart.^[13] Muchhal's charity organisation is named "Palak Muchhal Heart Foundation". As of March 2006^[update] this foundation had financially assisted 200 children in undergoing heart surgery.^[14] By the end of the year 2006 Muchhal had raised ₹1.2 crore (US$140,000) for this foundation which were used to save the lives of 234 children. To ensure that operations of children do not stop due to lack of money, Bhandari Hospital in Indore has allowed an overdraft of up to one million rupees to Palak Muchhal Heart Foundation.^[5] In 2006 Muchhal was one of the five heroic stories broadcast by Star Gold channel as part of its "Rang De Basanti Salaam" (Salute to Color of Sacrifice) initiative. By June 2009 Muchhal had staged 1,460 charity shows across the world, which had raised ₹1.71 crore (US$200,000) for Palak Muchhal Heart Foundation. These funds helped to save the lives of 338 children.^[15]

Doctors allow Muchhal to be present in the operating theatre. She has her own surgical gown in the hospital and when the operation takes place she chants Jain Navkar Mantra. Muchhal and her parents do not receive any financial benefits from the charity shows but she receives a doll for every child whose life she helps make better through her efforts.^[5]

In 2011, Muchhal entered Bollywood as a professional playback singer but her efforts to help child heart patients continued. In August 2015, funds raised by her has helped to save the lives of 800 children. As of October 2020, she with her brother has saved 2,200 lives of children.^[16] As of March 8, 2024, a total of 2986 lives have been saved so far by Palak and her brother Palash.^[17]

Muchhal released six non-filmi albums prior to her adulthood. In 2001, when she was nine, her first album "Child For Children" was released by Tips Music. In 2003, her second album Palken was released.^[18] In later years she released her other albums Aao Tumhe Chand Per Le Jaaye, Beti Hu Mahakal Ki, and Dil Ke Liye. In 2011, her Jai Jai Dev Ganesh album was released by T-Series. Muchhal moved to Mumbai from Indore in late 2006 to find opportunities in Bollywood for her singing career. She sang her first Bollywood song for the October 2011 movie Damadamm!, receiving generally positive reviews. She sang her second song, "Pyaar Ke Silsile", a month later for movie Na Jaane Kabse.^[19] The music in Na Jaane Kabse, and the movie also, received bad reviews.^[20] Muchhal was an acquaintance of actor Salman Khan. Khan had recommended her name earlier to music director Sajid–Wajid for his film Veer. Khan had also recommended her name to Yash Raj Banner. Following this, Muchhal dubbed the song "Laapata" with KK for Yash Raj banner which was included in 2012 blockbuster movie Ek Tha Tiger. The song was filmed on Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. The song was a hit and introduced her to Bollywood.^[21]

Later that year in 2012 she sang "Nainon Ne Nainon Se" song for the movie From Sydney with Love, receiving favorable reviews. In early 2013, Muchhal sang two songs, composed by Mithoon and Jeet Gannguli, for the movie Aashiqui 2. Aashiqui 2 music received generally positive reviews,^[22] becoming her second hit after Ek Tha Tiger with the song "Chahun Main Yaa Na" becoming her special signature start to the Bollywood industry.^[7] Muchhal has also sung a song "Tui Borsha Bikeler Dheu" in Bengali for the April 2013 Bengali movie Rocky. After her debut as a singer in Bollywood, she sang several songs of Himesh Reshammiya's composition. In 2014, she sang with Mika Singh for Reshammiya's song "Jumme Ki Raat", which became the biggest hit of the year. Later she also sang the same with Salman Khan. She was also the lead singer in the 2015 Salman Khan film Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.^[23][24] In 2016, she lent her voice for "Kaun Tujhe" of Amaal Mallik in M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, one of the top female songs of the year. Most of her songs until date are compositions of Reshammiya, Gannguli, Mithoon and Amaal Mallik. Her Kannada song "Enammi Enammi" with Vijay Prakash was a big chartbuster in 2018.