Sulakshana Pratap Narain Pandit is a Filmfare Award winning playback singer and actor. Her brothers are the composing duo Jatin Lalit and her younger sister is Vijeta Pandit who achieved fame with her debut movie Love Story. Her uncle is the accomplished classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj.

Biography

Sulakshana comes from a musical family originating from Pilimandori Village in Hissar (now Fatehabad) district of Haryana state. The famous classical vocalist and legendary Pandit Jasraj is her uncle. She started singing at the age of nine. Her elder brother Mandheer Pandit (who was earlier a music composer in the 1980s with Jatin Pandit, better known as Mandheer - Jatin) was her constant companion in Mumbai; they performed and sang on stage until Sulakshana became a leading playback singer through many of their live concerts with legends like Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi.

She has three brothers (Mandheer, Jatin and Lalit Pandit) and three sisters (Maya Anderson, Sandhya Singh and Vijeta Shrivastava). Her father Pratap Narain Pandit was an accomplished classical vocalist. Her nephew Yash Pandit is an Indian television actor. Nieces Shradha Pandit and Shweta Pandit are playback singers.

Sulakshana has never been married. Actor Sanjeev Kumar turned down her marriage proposal, because he never got over his heartbreak after actress Hema Malini rejected him to marry her frequent co-star Dharmendra.

She fell on hard times when she stopped getting work. In 2002, she was living in an apartment with no furniture and that required serious repairs. She was forced to put it up for sale. It remained on the market for several months, until her former leading man Jeetendra came to her rescue by convincing his brother-in-law to purchase the flat. From the proceeds of the sale, she was able to pay off her debts and purchase two apartments. Her sister Vijeta Pandit and brother-in-law, music composer Aadesh Shrivastava, sold her house; now she lives with them. Aadesh has indicated that he was composing a devotional album for Sulakshana, but he has failed to do anything yet. She broke her hip bone when she fell in the bathroom. Even after four surgeries, she still can't walk properly and is dependent on painkillers. She confines herself to a room in her sister's house and has a full-time domestic help looking after her.