 Suresh Wadkar made a surprise visit to Milton Keynes and made time to meet members of the MKHA Executive to discuss the Hindu Community Centre project. Sureshji was very pleased to learn that for such a small Hindu community we have such high aspirations. He was most thrilled to learn of the Community Centre and the Hindu Elders Housing project since both of these will serve the whole community very well when they are ready. Commenting on the project he said, 'This is truly a tremendous project. One that is wrothy of support of the whole Hindu community and I give my whole hearted support for its early establishment.'. Adding, 'I would be honoured to come back to Milton Keynes and give a performance in the Centre when it is ready.'
Sureshji was born in Kolhapur in 1954 and was sent by his father to his guru, Acharya Jialal Vasant , at the tender age of ten. Stunning both dad and guru with his prowess within a year, he began to perform on stage at a very early age. The Sur-Singar competition in 1976 proved his entrance route to Hindi films, with Seene Mein Jalan (Gaman) as his first assignment. Ravindra Jain’s Paheli soon followed.
The real big time began when Lata Mangeshkar recommended him to top names like Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji. After LP’s Chal chameli (Krodhi), Megha re (Pyaasa Sawan) and the songs of Raj Kapoor’s Prem Rog and Kalyanji-Anandji’s Vidhaata, Wadkar entered the big league.
In the ’80s and early ’90s, before music succumbed to the virus of crass commercialism, Suresh Wadkar was a frontline singer. Apart from singing for the topmost composers of the time (Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, R.D. Burman, Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, Khaiyyaam, Usha Khanna, early Anu Malik) and even veterans (Shanker, Ravi, Chitragupta, Jaidev, Hridaynath Mangeshkar), he sang for the topmost banners and filmmakers (RK, Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, G.P.Sippy et al).
The list of actors for whom he has sung includes Shammi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughna Sinha and even Amitabh Bachchan. Wadkar has also sung in several films for Jeetendra, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty, Raj Babbar, Govinda, Sunny Deol and even Kamal Haasan and Rajnikant.
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