In 2009, when Udit Narayan was awarded India's civilian honour Padma Shri, there were reports questioning his Indian citizenship, claiming that he was born in Nepal. Udit Narayan Jha was born in a Maithil Brahmin family in 1955 to Nepali father Harekrishna Jha and Indian mother Bhuvaneshwari Jha. As many as 21 of his tracks feature in BBC's "Top 40 Bollywood Soundtracks of all time". and Chitragupta Cineyatra Samman 2015 for his contribution to Bhojpuri cinema. Recognising his contribution, King of Nepal Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev awarded him with the Prabal Gorkha Dakshin Bahu in 2001 after which for his contribution to Indian cinema and music, he was awarded the Padma Shri in 2009, and in 2016 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.
In the 1990s he sung for a thousands of songs including Hindi and Nepali languages. after which he was one of the favourites of music directors. The soundtrack was a breakthrough for the careers of Anand–Milind, as well as T-Series, one of India's leading record labels. Īfter the success of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak with more than 8 million sales, the soundtrack became one of the highest selling albums in the 1980s. He is the only male singer in the history of the Filmfare Awards to have won in over three decades (the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s).
He finally made his mark in 1988 movie Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak starring Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla, his song "Papa Kehte Hain" was his notable performance which earned him his first Filmfare Award in the 1980s and he established himself in Bollywood Playback Singing. He got to sing with Mohammed Rafi in his Bollywood Playback debut in movie Unees-Bees in 1980 and also with Kishore Kumar in the 1980s. He has won 4 National Film Awards and 5 Filmfare Awards with 20 nominations among many others. He has also sung in various other languages including Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Bengali, Odia, Bhojpuri, Nepali, Malayalam, and Assamese. Udit Narayan (born 1 December 1955) is an Indian playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Bollywood movies of Hindi language.