| Pascal of Bollywood | |
| Birth Name: | Pascal Heni |
| Birth Date: | 1963 |
| Birth Place: | Batignolles, Paris, France |
| Genre: | Bollywood music |
| Years Active: | 1990–present |
Pascal of Bollywood (born Pascal Heni; 1963) is a French actor and singer who gained fame in India as the first Westerner to reinterpret the songs of Indian cinema in Hindi, Tamil and Bengali.[1] He is best known for his Hindi and French cover of Edith Piaf's "La Vie en rose".
Pascal Heni was born in Paris in 1963 into a family of pied-noirs.[2] His artistic career began at the age of 15 years with courses in drama and theater. While traveling in Malaysia in 1987 he heard the Hindi song "Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana" from the film Andaz and became fascinated with Bollywood music. Upon his return to France he began studying Indian languages and emulating the style of Kishore Kumar, his favorite singer.[3]
In 2001, he went to India where he sang the popular Indian standard repertoire of the 1950s through the 1970s and embarked on an India-wide concert tour. He recorded his first album with a large Bollywood orchestra in Bombay. Indian composer Pyarelal Sharma of the Laxmikant Pyarelal duo, served as the musical director for the resulting album, Pascal of Bollywood. It was released by Naïve Records in France in October 2004 and was followed by numerous concerts around the world.
The "Frenchman", as The Times of India nicknamed him, returned to Europe on tour to introduce Bollywood music to the West. He has contributed greatly to the growth of Bollywood in France and Europe.
In 2009, Pascal Heni released a French-language album entitled Retour au nom de jeune homme. The music was composed by himself and arranged by three young Indian musicians, Dominique Blanc-Francard and Pyarelal.
Heni has been in a relationship with French botanist Patrick Blanc since 1985.[4] [5]