Ritesh Pandey

Singer

Ritesh Pandey (born 14 May 1991) is an Indian playback singer, model and actor, who works in Bhojpuri cinema. He is recognised as one of the leading artists in the Bhojpuri music industry. He began his singing career with a Bhojpuri album which was released in 2010. He got fame after his work in the films titled Balma Bihar Wala 2 (2016) and Tohre Me Basela Pran (2017). His song "Hello Kaun" had over 900 million views on YouTube and reached No. 1 on Global YouTube Music Videos Chart in 2020 becoming the most viewed Bhojpuri song ever.

While growing up in Bihar’s Sasaram city, his family faced financial turmoil, and his father moved to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, where he joined a school as a teacher and started giving tuitions. Later, the entire family shifted to Varanasi from Bihar.

After scoring 72% marks in 12th standard in the science stream, his parents wanted him to move to Kota in Rajasthan to prepare for the PMT examination; however, Ritesh was not interested in his parents’ wish, and he wanted to make a career in singing. After a fierce argument with his parents and other relatives, Ritesh decided to make a career in singing.
Soon, he started giving singing performances in various programmes held in small cities and villages in his locality. Later, with the money that he had collected from these performances, he recorded a song in a studio in Varanasi; however, the song couldn’t bring the required success to Ritesh.

Later, Ritesh recorded another album of songs, and again, the albums proved to be a flop; however, Ritesh didn’t give up, and he went on to record albums one after another.
In 2014, he recorded a Bhojpuri song with Basant Bahar company. Reportedly, he shared the song through a pen drive to many shopkeepers across various cities in Uttar Praesh and Bihar by visiting them himself on a motorcycle, and the song became a hit.