Mahalakshmi Iyer is an Indian playback singer, best known for her Hindi and Tamil songs. She has sung in many other Indian languages as well, including Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Assamese, and Kannada. Mahalakshmi comes from a Tamil musical family. Her mother is a Carnatic classical singer. She began learning Hindustani music at an early age as did her three sisters, Kalpana, Padmini and Shobha. Iyer grew up in Chembur, Mumbai, and is a graduate of R.A.Podar College & Economics, Mumbai.