Mauli Dave – an Indian singer, actress, dancer, and television host.

Mauli Dave

Mauli Dave was born on June 03 in Ahmadabad to parents, Hemant Dave and Dipti Dave. She started singing before she could talk when she was only 10 months old through her grandparents who were both ‘Visharath’ in Music. As a baby, Mauli was nicknamed Pum-Pum by her relatives and friends; and it wasn’t till she was about 10 when many found out her real name was Mauli.

Her parents moved to Houston, Texas U.S.A. in 1990 when Mauli was only 2 and half years old. Her mother was the main push and influential factor for her and her elder brother Omkar. She made it a point to teach them everything and anything possible from sports, martial arts, classical dance, classical music, instruments, fine arts, performing arts etc. to make sure they had an open door to all opportunities in life. Their mother sent Mauli and Omkar to live in India with their grandmother after their grandfather’s death from 1995 to 2000 where she learned Hindustani classical music from Mr. Divyang Thakur in Ahmadabad, Kuchipudi (classical dance) from Sri Radha Menon and received a diploma in it at an early age of 12. Mauli learned how to read, write and speak in Hindi Gujarati and a little bit of Sanskrit as well. After returning to the U.S.A. in 2000 Mauli started doing professional singing performances in small events at the young age of 12. Her mother, Dipti Dave, was the director of her own Music and Dance Academy originally opened in the 80’s where Mauli taught classical music, tabla and classical dance to people younger and elder to her. Mauli has also been trained in other dance styles such as Bharatnatyam, Odissi and Hip Hop.

In Highschool, Mauli played Varsity Tennis for all 4 years. Fine arts was also something she was always inclined towards since she was 8 years old; so she continued taking art based classes like drawing, painting and graphic designing from 8th grade till the 12 grade. Mauli graduated from high school with a distinguished degree as a Magna Cumlaude. Mauli decided to attend the University of Houston and study Graphic Communications to receive a Bachelors Degree in Arts. Being a straight A student all her life, she managed to be on the Dean’s list all two years. In February 2007, due to her mom’s persuasion, Mauli decided to participate in the Miss Teen India Texas Pageant, where she won and was crowned the title. Later in March that year, Mauli’s childhood dream to be a part of India’s most prestigious singing competition, “Saregamapa Challenge 2007,” came true when she auditioned from Houston, then New York and then in Mumbai eventually being selected and representing the U.S.A. Mauli was the most popular contestant on the show and overnight became a singing sensation from her amazing version of the song ‘Mayya Mayya.’

After becoming a youth icon through her singing, Mauli started looking into different types of projects. The next big project was hosting a family based dance show titled ‘Rock n Roll Family’ on the Zee Network, where her Hindi speaking skills were proven to be well beyond everyone’s expectations as everyone expected it to be otherwise due to her American upbringing. Because each episode opened with her dance performance, more people learned of her dancing background. She later got an offer for playing the main protagonist in a Tele-Film “Ek Anhonee” for the Zoom Network. Mauli was well appreciated for her role in this thriller as Divyani Mitra. Besides films, Mauli has also landed her voice as a singer and voice over artist for big Ad companies like Del Monte, Fastrack, Fructis Garnier, TVS Scooty etc.

Mauli has been awarded the “Upcoming Singer” trophy in the Garvvati Gujarat Awards 2010 and nominated twice in two separate Award functions. In 2010 she was nominated under the “Upcoming Debutant Singer” category for the song “Agre Ka Ghaghra” from the film “Jai Veeru” and in the “Upcoming Singer Female” category for the title song for “Love Ka Tadka.”

Lately, Mauli is a part of is one of the toughest and hardest shows created internationally, Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi season 4- Torchaar airing on Colors.

Mauli Dave is part of a band called “The Bartender” lead by the amazing music maestro, Mikey McCleary. She is one of the original singers for The Bartender since their debut in 2011. The Bartender includes other artists like Shalmali Kholgade and Anushka Manchanda on vocals, Vinay Lobo on guitar, Aditya Ashok on drums, Anand Bhagat on percussions, Ramon Ibrahim on keyboards, Rhys D’Souza on saxophone, Kishore Sodha on trumpet and Mikey McCleary on bass. It has in the past also included Suman Sridhar, Monica Dogra and Sagarika Mukherjee on vocals, Merlin D’Souza on keyboards, and Warren Mendonsa on guitar. The Bartender has performed in many huge events such as Amitabh Bachchan’s 70th Birthday Bash in 2012 and for Abu Jani – Sandeep Khosla’s book launch, India Fantastique among many others.

Awards and nominations

• Crowned “Miss Teen India Texas 2007” – Pageant
• Stardust Awards 2009–2010: Nominated for “Upcoming Debutant Singer” for the song “Agre Ka Ghaghra” from the film “Jai Veeru”
• Music Mirchi Awards 2009–2010: Nominated for “Upcoming Singer Female” for the title song of “Love Ka Tadka.”
• Gujarati Garvvati Awards 2010: Won award for “Upcoming Singer”

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