Sneha Khanwalkar


Sneha Khanwalkar is an Indian music director who works in Hindi films. She is best known for her score for the film, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, and also for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 and Part 2. She was nominated in Best Music Director category at the 58th Filmfare Awards for Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 & Part 2. She is only the second woman to gain a nomination in this category 28 years after Usha Khanna.

Early life and education

Khanwalkar was born and brought up in Indore, where her mother's family was entrenched in the Gwalior gharana of Hindustani classical music, through which she learned music as a child.
During her HSC vacations, she did an animation course and art direction course. In 2001, her family moved to Mumbai, with an aim of her joining an engineering college, but instead she started working in animation followed by art direction before deciding on music direction as a career, after rediscovering her childhood passion for music.

Career

In 2004, she scored the movie The Hope, which competed at the Internationales Filmfest Emden in Germany. Meanwhile, she also did the title track for Ruchi Narain's film, KAL – Yesterday and Tomorrow, though her big break came when she composed music for the 2007 movie Go, produced by Ram Gopal Varma, and also got to compose a song for Sarkar Raj.
In 2008, she won accolades for her score for the film, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! for which she travelled through rural North India, especially Haryana, where she visited the Raagini music festival, while researching for the film's music, eventually she created a hit soundtrack, embellished with Haryanvi musical influences.
She was the music director of Anurag Kashyap's celebrated movie Gangs of Wasseypur, for which she was nominated in Best Music Director category at the 58th Filmfare Awards.

Sound Trippin

She was also the host of a popular music-based MTV mini-series called Sound Trippin in which she traveled to places like Punjab, Banaras, Yellapur, Goa, Leh, etc. collecting local and ambient sounds from everyday singers to local musicians, and creating a final piece of music that resonates with the feel and the sounds from that location. The show was shot by Babble Fish Productions. She hosted the first season as well as the first 6 episodes of the second season.

Filmography

Television