How Maine Payal Hai Chhankai Fame Falguni Pathak Faded From Public Memory

If you grew up in the 90s, a decade often termed the golden age of Indipop, you certainly listened to the songs of popular singer Falguni Pathak. She was a rage in the late 90s with her tracks like Maine Payal hai Chankai, Yaad Piya ki Aane Lagi, becoming chartbusters. She gave consecutive hit singles between 1998 and 2002. Her song Yaad Piya ki Aane Lagi was used in the Bollywood film Pyaar Koi Khel Nahi and was picturised on Mahima Chaudhary. However, surprisingly, Falguni has never done any playback singing. She is one of the very few from the 90s and early 2000s Indipop scene who never went for playback singing. And that is probably why, despite being so popular more than two decades ago, Falguni soon went into oblivion.

Falguni’s career suddenly started moving downhill when she decided to work on her terms. According to media reports, when her first album was a hit, many music composers offered her songs in films, but Falguni went on rejecting all those offers. And then by the mid-2000s, the concept of album songs gradually declined and playback singing was the only avenue available for artists. Many singers who started with music albums in the 90s like Shaan, KK and Shubha Mudgal made the shift into playback singing but Falguni did not.