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K.L. Saigal

He never lip-synced a single song. Every note came out of his own mouth, live on camera, in an era before playback singing even existed.

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K.L. Saigal was born Kundanlal Saigal, on 11 April 1904, in Jammu.
Before music, he worked as a railway timekeeper, and as a typewriter salesman in Shimla.
In the early 1930s, he joined New Theatres, a film studio in Calcutta.
His bhajans for “Puran Bhagat” (1933) made him an overnight sensation.
He played the title role in “Devdas” (1935), the film that defined his acting career.
He sang all his own songs live, on camera. He did not record separately for other actors to lip-sync.
He died on 18 January 1947, in Jalandhar, at age 42.

In “Street Singer” (1938), he performed “Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye” live on camera.
Only in his final years, from 1945 to 1947, did he record any songs for separate studio release.
Across his career, he acted in 36 feature films — 28 in Hindi, 7 in Bengali, and 1 in Tamil.
He recorded 185 songs in total: 142 for films, and 43 outside of films.
Alcoholism affected his health and his work through the 1940s.
India Post issued a postage stamp in his honour, in 1995.

Don’t call Saigal a “playback singer” in the strict sense. Playback singing means recording separately, for another actor to lip-sync on screen. Saigal always sang live, for his own on-screen performances.
He still shaped the playback era that followed him. Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, and Mukesh all considered him their musical Guru.
His baritone-and-tenor blend became a benchmark. Singers who came after him were often measured against his style, even after true playback singing took over the industry.