Wadkar was born in Kolhapur in a middle-class family that soon moved to Girangaon. His father Ishwar Wadkar worked in cloth mills and his mother cooked food for the mill workers.[4] In youth, he wrestled at akhadas and frequented the Talwalkar gym with his father, who was also a wrestler.[5]
In 1968, when Wadkar was 13, Jialal Vasant encouraged him to work towards the "Prabhakar" certificate offered by the Prayag Sangit Samiti, because it was equivalent to a BEd and qualifies the awardee to teach professionally. Wadkar successfully completed his "Prabhakar" and joined Arya Vidya Mandir in Mumbai as a music teacher.[4]
Singing career
Though groomed for Indian classical music, Wadkar entered the Sur-Singar competition in 1976. He won the competition which was judged by composers from the Indian film industry including Jaidev and Ravindra Jain.[4] Ravindra Jain introduced him to the world of playback singing, and Wadkar sang Jain's composition Sona Kare Jhilmil Jhilmil Vrishti Pade Tapur Tupur in the film Paheli (1977).[6] Jaidev also offered him the song "Seene Mein Jalan" in the film Gaman (1978).[5]
Wadkar sang his first Tamil song in the 2009 film Kanden Kadhalai, an adaptation of the Hindi blockbuster Jab We Met. The song is a ghazal type song called "Naan Mozhi Arindhaen".
He has sung numerous devotional songs in various Indian languages for many denominations including many Vaishnav and Shaivite sampradayas such as the Swaminarayan Sampradaya.
In 1996, Wadkar sang Channeache Rati among several other songs in Rajendra Talak's Konkani album Daryachya Deger with Asha Bhosle.
Wadkar is the director of the Ajivasan(Acharya Jialal Vasant Sangeet NIkaetan) Music Academy in Mumbai [14] He also has a training institute in and New Jersey/New York City area.[citation needed] He has also started an online music school, called SWAMA (Suresh Wadkar Ajivasan Music Academy), under Ace Open University.[citation needed]
Personal life
Wadkar is married to classical singer Padma and the couple has two daughters, Ananya and Jiya.[15][16]
Awards
In 1976, Wadkar won the Madan Mohan Best Male Playback Singer Award at the Sur-Singar competition.[6][5] He is also a recipient of the 2004 Lata Mangeshkar Puraskar instituted by Madhya Pradesh government.[17] He also won the 2007 Maharashtra Pride Award which is given by the government of Maharashtra to citizens of note.[18] He got awarded by Late Sadashiv Amarapurkar Award 2017 by Ahmednagar's Think Global Foundation.
He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2018 for Sugam Sangeet.[3] On January 25, 2020, his name was announced for Government of India's fourth highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, for his work in the field of arts.[19][20][21]
This article contains a list that has not been properly sorted. Specifically, it does not follow the Manual of Style for lists of works (often, though not always, due to being in reverse-chronological order). See MOS:LISTSORT for more information. Please improve this article if you can.(November 2021)