page_title: Neha Kakkar
section_title: 2006–2012: Career beginnings and breakthrough with Cocktail
hierarchical_section_title: Neha Kakkar / Career / 2006–2012: Career beginnings and breakthrough with Cocktail
caption_attribution_description: English: Neha Kakkar at Cinemax
context_page_description: Neha Kakkar is an Indian playback singer. She began performing at religious events at the age of four and participated in the second season of the singing reality show, Indian Idol, in which she was eliminated early. She made her Bollywood debut as a chorus singer in the film Meerabai Not Out. She rose to prominence upon the release of the dance track "Second Hand Jawani" from Cocktail which was followed by several other popular party songs including "Sunny Sunny" from Yaariyan and "London Thumakda" from Queen.
  Afterwards, she mostly performed party tracks like "Aao Raja" from Gabbar Is Back, "Tu Isaq Mera" from Hate Story 3, "Humne Pee Rakhi Hai" from Sanam Re and "Kar Gayi Chull" from Kapoor & Sons. She proved her versatility in musical range with the release of "Mile Ho Tum" from Fever which topped the list of most-viewed Bollywood songs on YouTube.
context_section_description: Kakkar anticipated that her participation in Indian Idol and the association with her brother, Tony Kakkar, fueled her career into playback singing. However, five years post Indian Idol, Kakkar failed to gather any work in Bollywood films which she believes was due to her "negligence in pleading the music directors and producers, unlike the rest of participants from the show". Hence, she became more occupied with the concerts and event performances that took her "across the world". According to her, during this phase she started getting recognised and people started referring her as the "Jai Mata Di girl".
  In 2008, she launched her debut album Neha The Rockstar with music by Meet Bros in which she performed some romantic songs. During the time, she recorded for a music album, Romeo Juliet composed by her brother, Tony Kakkar. The song "Mohabbat Hai" from the album received limited recognition from the listeners which resulted in the offer to render her first Kotak Mahindra jingle, "Mera Jaisa Koi Mere Zindagi Main Aaye".
  A year later, a friend of Kakkar called her from the studio of composer Sandesh Shandilya, who was looking for a new voice to record the song "Hai Rama" from Meerabai Not Out (2008). The following year, she was featured in an A.R. Rahman's composition, the theme song of Blue (2009) where she provided the chorus vocals for the song. She then lent her voice for the title track of the Hindi-language soap operaNa Aana Is Des Laado (2009) which holds a special place in her heart, as the "song was a touching experience since it focused on women".
  In 2010, Kakkar made her movie debut with Sooraj Barjatya's film Isi Life Mein...! (2010) in which she played the role of a college student. The film received negative reviews from critics and was a box office failure. The same year, she debuted in both the Kannada and Telugu music industry by performing a total of four tracks for Sandeep Chowta. She lent her voice for the title track of the Kannada film Thamassu and the song "Nodu Baare" alongside Master Saleem, which were appreciated by the reviewers from Bangalore Mirror and the former resulted in her only Filmfare Awards South nomination as the Best Female Playback Singer. Also, the same publication complimented Kakkar's rendition in the song "Neeve Na Neeve Na" and "Jaaniya Jaane" from the Telugu film Kedi.
  She had a single Bollywood release in 2011, Sandeep Chowta-composed "Woh Ek Pal", performed alongside Arijit Dutta, which lacked the needed coverage from the music listeners. She then made an appearance in the second season of Comedy Circus Ke Taansen alongside Kapil Sharma and Ali Asgar which she considered an "amazing experience" where the "atmosphere on the sets was positive and the jokes had us all cracking up. I particularly enjoyed it since I am bubbly and always smiling". The following year, her collaboration with Pritam for the dance track "Second Hand Jawani" from Cocktail proved to be a major breakthrough for Kakkar. The song went to become popular among the music listeners, though it received mixed to negative reviews from critics, calling it a "distraction amidst rest of the album". Besides, she got a "tremendous response" for her "Shah Rukh Khan Anthem" on YouTube, for which Shah Rukh Khan thanked her by saying he "loved the song".
caption: Kakkar at the premiere event of Marathi film Janiva, 2015
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