About
Kavita Seth, born 14 September 1970 in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, is a singer, composer and performer best known for her Sufi music and Hindi-film playback. Classically trained, with a post-graduate degree in Hindustani music, she first sang at the Khankhah-e-Niazia dargah in Bareilly and leads a Sufi ensemble, the Karwaan Group.
Discovered at Muzaffar Ali's International Sufi Festival, Seth won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer twice, for the classical-Sufi Iktara from Wake Up Sid and for Rangisari from Jugjugg Jeeyo. She has released Sufi albums including Sufiana, built entirely on the verse of Rumi, composed the soundtrack for the BBC series A Suitable Boy, and performs Sufi concerts across India and the world. Her sons Kavish and Kanishk Seth perform with her.
The artistry
Seth sings Sufi kalaam, ghazal, geet and folk with a warm, emotive voice rooted in Hindustani classical training. With the Karwaan Group she builds immersive Sufi concerts, and as a composer she sets the verse of poets like Rumi to music.
Repertoire
Performance
Publications & productions
Career & milestones
Festivals & appearances
Lineage & training
Recognition
Affiliations
Gallery
Kavita Seth connects on the Culture Atlas graph to the Bhajan artform profile (her primary repertoire), to the Sufi Music artform (her Sufi poetry strand), and to Mumbai as her professional base. Her film work with A.R. Rahman on Rang De Basanti creates a connection to the broader Sufi music cinema ecosystem.
Kavita Seth represents the contemporary performance of Bhakti and Sufi devotional poetry in a concert and recording context that reaches audiences across religious and cultural backgrounds. Her ability to convey the mystical intensity of Kabir and Mirabai's verse in contemporary performance settings demonstrates the continued vitality of the devotional poetry tradition.