Do we like Shreya Ghoshal?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record and some real good, but little on record about LGBTQ+ issues either way, so it stops short of the top end.
Shreya Ghoshal grew up in a small town near Kota in Rajasthan, the daughter of an engineer father and a mother who accompanied her rehearsals on the tanpura. She trained in Hindustani classical music from a young age and rose to fame by winning the reality show Sa Re Ga Ma.
Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali's mother spotted her on that show and pushed him to give her a go, which led to her Bollywood break in Devdas. She's since become a regular on his films and sung across many Indian languages.
Her messiest moment is the Chikni Chameli stoush. In March 2026 she said she won't record raunchy songs like that anymore, then got trolled when she was seen performing it. She replied that she can't disown it and noted she didn't always grasp the lyrics at the time. It's more a consistency quibble than a scandal.
She also told podcaster Raj Shamani she turned down Fevicol Se from Dabangg 2 over its objectification. On the harm check, nothing nasty turned up in what she's said or done, and no dodgy company either. We found nothing on her stance toward LGBTQ+ people either way. That's a gap, not a tick.
Her record on women is the strongest part. In 2024 she moved a Kolkata concert in solidarity with protests after the RG Kar medical college tragedy, praying for women's safety everywhere. She was also named Spotify's first Indian EQUAL Global Ambassador, a program backing women in music.
In 2025 she lost control of her X account for over a month. She was also the target of AI-generated click-bait ads using her name, and she warned fans about the links. She was on the receiving end there, not the culprit.