Nishant Akshar is one of the finest Ghazal Singers in Delhi. He has mastered the the art of ghazal singing and delivered numerous amount of shows , ghazal nights , and solo concerts.Handling a stage is an art which Nishant has absorbed into his soul. Corporate Giants such as I.B.M and Volvo have shown their trust on him and in return , they have got more than what they expected.
Since childhood, he is fond of Mehdi Hassan Sahib, Janaab Ghulam Ali and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He always considered them as his ideal in the field of ghazals and sufi music. At the same time he is in love with sports, especially soccer, lawn tennis and cricket. Till early twenties, he used to play cricket and sing ghazals of various ghazal masestros back at home. Not confined to the ambit of music and sports, he also considers reading refined literature valuable. He also feels fortunate to have such awesome singers from the world of Hindi cinema: Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Manna Dey, Talat Mahmood and Bhupinder. Thus he is a man vested with versatile persona.
Nishant Akshar, deserves to be labeled as a promising ghazal singer in the contemporary times when ghazal is at low ebb in the terms of marketing and distribution. He also deserves applause for the commitment which he displays for ghazal singing. Notwithstanding the conditions and circumstances which stood in sharp contrast at one point of time to his journey of ghazal singing, he always devised a way the end of which is ghazal. The most striking feature of Nishant Akshar is his selection of poetry. Having a literary background, it immensely assists him in selecting the right kind of poetry coupled with the composition he weaves around those set of selected words.
Nishant Akshar was born on November 28, 1976 in New Delhi to a middle class family which did not have any association with the music as a carrier. But his association with music was so deep that he decided to take this as a carrier. Infact, the credit goes to his paternal family where everyone used to sing and possessed a craving for learning music in real sense of the term. In particular, his father, Sh. Gurbachan Singh Kukreja, was his mentor since his childhood. He remembers the first composition which he learned from him while playing harmonium along with it, Awara Hoon Ya Gardish Mein Hoon Asmaan Ka Tara Hoon, Awara Hoon, a famous song from one of the movies of Raj Kapoor. From then onward his love towards music grew in leaps and he never looked back. He fell in love with the voice and style of a ghazal maestro, Janaab Ghulam Ali during his early childhood years. He remembers when he was merely 10 years old singing along with Ghualm Ali Sahib?s recorded ghazal, Main Nazar Se Pee Raha Hoon, Yeh Sama Badal Na Jaaye. He was fascinated with the style of Ghulam Ali and as he grew old and started understanding the structures of notes and rhythm, then Mehdi Hassan Sahib cast a magical spell over him. Ranjish Hi Sahi, became his favorite which he still sings while having good time with his instruments. His voice is charming, deep, mesmerizing, swift and filled with innocence. His gestures while singing purely reminds of the legendary singers who walked upon this earth. His uncanny sense of adapting voice for the ghazal in rendition furthers make him stand apart from the other singers. Though influenced by various singers, he has carved his own style of singing ghazals which is laudable as he is in his early thirties only. Another notable feature of his understanding of a ghazal is that he has learned Urdu in which ghazal reigns supreme, thus enabling him to evoke a relevant emotion in accordance with the poetry he selects to render.
Strongly rooted in music and academics as he is a post graduate in Sociology, the prominent turn in his life came when he got an opportunity to deliver a ghazal evening for a charitable cause. He delivered a program of ghazal for fund raising campaign for the Indian Medical Association (IMA). To his utter content, the association could amass good amount of wealth for building a hospital through his program. That was the day when he realized that art could be directed not only to enthrall people but to assist those who constitute the destitute of the earth. He firmly decided to tread on the way of composing and singing ghazals.
Today Nishant Akshar is a ghazal singer who is promising to do well in future in this field and need encouragement and support of all those who love to see the art of ghazal singing flourish. His commitment, firmness and suave nature compels to draw ones attention.