Shiv Chalisa (Hindi: शिव चालीसा, literally Forty chaupais on Shiva) is a devotional song dedicated Hindu deity, Lord Shiva. Adapted from the Shiva Purana, it consists of 40 (Chalis) chaupais (verses) and recited daily or on special festivals like Maha Shivaratri by Shivaites, and worshipers of Shiva.

Shiva is a major Hindu deity and the Destroyer or transformer of the Trimurti. Shiva is usually worshiped in the abstract form of Shiva linga. In images, he is generally in deep meditation or dancing the Tandava. Lord Mahesh or Shiva, the 3rd God of the Hindu Trimurti, is the Destroyer. He represents the hot-blooded (Tamsik) – dream, thought, action, character, and destiny – way. His attributes represents victory over the demonic activity, and calmness of human nature.

Lord Shiv is the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine which has dominion over death and destruction. He appears in a meditating but ever-happy posture having matted hair which holds the flowing Ganges river and a crescent moon, a serpent coiled around his neck, a trident (trishul) in his one hand and ashes all over his body. He is known as the "giver" god. His vehicle is a bull (symbol of happiness and strength) named Nandi.

Suresh Ishwar Wadkar (Marathi: सुरेश ईश्वर वाडकर, born 1954) is an Indian playback singer. He performs in both Hindi and Marathi films.He has sung songs in some Bhojpuri films and in Konkani.

Suresh Wadkar from Bhandari Caste , was born in Kolhapur at post. Dindnerli Tal. Karvir, India. At the age of 8, he began acquiring basic music education from Jialal Vasant. He soon impressed his guru with the quality of his voice. He began performing on the stage at a very early age.

Back in 1968, when Suresh Wadkar was barely 13, Acharya Jialal Vasant entrusted him with a student to initiate in Tabla. A year later, he was given the responsibility of a group of youngsters to teach vocal classical. Our system of education in music makes it mandatory to teach before you appear for your graduation in music through Prayag Sangit Samiti, because there “Prabhakar” certificate is equivalent to B. Ed. and it authorizes you to teach professionally. Guruji made every child studying for Senior Diploma, to sit in the class of 1st year with an experienced teacher and learn the process of “teaching”. Suresh successfully completed his “Prabhakar” and joined “Arya Vidya Mandir, Mumbai as a music teacher. A lot of famous “stars” of today had the opportunity to learn from him.

Anuradha Paudwal is a popular playback singer in Bollywood in India. She has sung songs in Hindi, Marathi, Oriya, and Nepali.

She studied at Xavier's College in Mumbai. She was married to the late Arun Paudwal, who worked with music director S. D. Burman as his assistant. Her singing career started in 1973 with the movie, Abhimaan, (starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan) in which she sang a Shloka (a Sanskrit verse). In the same year she also made her Marathi film debut with "Yashoda" (music by Datta Davjekar). In 1974, she brought out a record of Non-film Marathi songs or "bhav geeten" which became very popular.

In 1976, she got her break as a playback singer in Hindi films with Kalicharan (starring Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy). Her first solo was in the movie, Aap Beati, (starring Hema Malini and Shashi Kapoor). Laxmikant-Pyarelal were the music-composer duo for that movie. She also occasionally sang songs for composers Rajesh Roshan (Des Pardes), Jaidev (Dooriyan, Laila Majnu), Kalyanji Anandji (Kalaakar, Vidhaata), and Usha Khanna (Souten, Sajan Bina Suhagan).

Gulshan Kumar (गुलशन कुमार) (5 May 1956 - 12 August 1997) was the founder of the T-Series music label (Super Cassettes Industries Ltd.), and an Indian Bollywood movie producer. T series is now run by his son Bhushan Kumar. His daughter Tulsi Kumar is a playback singer.

Born Gulshan Dua into a Punjabi Hindu Arora family, he was the son of Chandrabhan, a fruit juice seller in Darya Ganj market in Delhi, where he started working early on. Later Gulshan changed career paths when his family acquired a shop selling records and cheap audio cassettes, this was the beginning of what was to become a vast music empire.

He founded Super Cassettes Industries, a small audio cassette operation which soon grew to be very big. Later he started a music production company in Noida, near Delhi. He is said to have started the practice of exploiting a loophole in the Indian copyright law, and creating cover versions of popular songs.

To counter relatively expensive audio tapes which used to be marketed by reputed music companies, Gulshan brought out in the late 1970s very cheaply made and low priced music cassettes. He exported quality music cassettes when his business grew.