Aarti Mukherji (also known as Aarti Mukherjee or Arati Mukhopadhyay) is a Bengali playback singer who has also sung in Hindi films such as Geet Gata Chal (1975), Tapasya (1976), Manokamana and Masoom (1983). 　　Aarti Mukherji was born in West Bengal, India. She belongs to a Bengali speaking family. In a TV show called "Dadagiri" she recollected memories of her early days. She stated there that she once got an opportunity to sing in the "All India Music Talent Programme" in 1955, when she was a 14- or 15-year-old girl who had dreams to go to Bombay and achieve the level of fame as Lata Mangeshkar. 　　Arati Mukhopadhyay was trained in Indian Classical Music from a young age. She sang primarily for Bengali films. She won the music contest, "Metro-Murphy Contest", where the judges were music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Vasant Desai and C. Ramchandra. This paved way for a career as a playback singer. She got her first break in 1958 Hindi film Sahara starring Meena Kumari and music by Hemant Kumar, but the music of that film was not so successful. After a string of films like Do Dil Char Rahe (1959, music by Anil Biswas, starring Meena Kumari) and Boy Friend (1961, which starred Madhubala and music by S-J), she decided to move to Bengali films. As most composers they chose Mangeshkar or others, Mukherji faced strong competition. The first Bengali film she provided vocals for was called Kanna, released in 1962.