Hard Kaur

Hard Kaur (born Taran Kaur Dhillon on 29 July 1979) is a British-Indian rapper, hip hop singer, playback singer, and actress in the Bollywood film industry.

She is widely recognized as the first female Indian rapper and the first female Punjabi rapper.

Hard Kaur was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, into a Punjabi Jatt Sikh family of the Dhillon clan. Her mother ran a small beauty parlour from their home in Kanpur. Her father was killed by a mob during the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. After her father's death, her paternal grandparents asked her mother to leave their house and wanted to keep her brother with them.

Consequently, she, her brother, and her mother moved to Hoshiarpur in Punjab, India, to live with her maternal grandparents for the next couple of years.

In 1991, her mother remarried a British citizen, and the family moved to Birmingham, England. In Birmingham, her mother worked and studied to eventually open a beauty salon in Smethwick.

Hard Kaur attended school as an Indian immigrant in the UK. She developed an interest in hip-hop at age 14 and felt liberated by it, as hip-hop gave her a voice. She left school at 16 to pursue a music career.

Hard Kaur recorded the song "Ek Glassy" and became prominent in the UK music scene. Her Bollywood break came in 2007 with Sriram Raghavan's movie Johnny Gaddaar, where she rapped for the song "Paisa Phek (Move Your Body)".

Since then, she has sung numerous songs in films including Ugly Aur Pagli, Singh Is Kinng, Kismat Konnection, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, and Prince.

Her first solo album, Supawoman, was released in 2007. In 2008, she was nominated for two awards at the UK Asian Music Awards "Best Urban Act" and "Best Female Act" and won "Best Female Act". She performed at Live Earth India in 2008.

In October 2012, she released her second music album titled Party Loud All Year: P.L.A.Y., produced in collaboration with Sony Music. The album featured ten songs, all written and composed by her, with "Mujhe Peeney do" as the most successful song.

In 2013, she collaborated with composer Ram Sampath and Rajasthani folk singer Bhanvari Devi for Coke Studio India on the song "Katey or Kathe". She also collaborated with the American hip hop group D12 on the track "Desi Dance" in 2013.

Her notable songs include "Laung Da Lashkara" (from Patiala House), "Char Baj Gaye," "Move Your Body," "Chennai City Gangsta," and "Sarrainodu". The collaboration with Mahalakshmi Iyer on "Laung Da Lashkara" is among her most well-known works. In Patiala House (2011), she also made her first feature film role appearance as Komal Chatwal.

Hard Kaur was a contestant on the television reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, Season 3, in 2009, where she was voted off in the semi-finals. She appeared as a guest on Bigg Boss 6 in 2012 and participated in Box Cricket League in 2016 as a player in Ahmedabad Express.

Hard Kaur has expressed support for the Sikh-separatist Khalistan movement on multiple occasions in videos, while criticizing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, the Indian government, Hindu nationalists, the BJP party, and the RSS.

In June 2019, a First Information Report was lodged against her for comments about Yogi Adityanath and Mohan Bhagwat. In August 2019, her Twitter account was suspended after she posted a video abusing Amit Shah and Narendra Modi with Khalistan supporters.

She released a song and music video in 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370, in which she called herself a "proud Khalistani". In 2020, she released an Instagram video calling Indian people derogatory names. She also posted a now-deleted video slut-shaming Bollywood actresses and mocking the Indian #MeToo movement victims.

Her discography includes the EP Voodoo Hill (1997), albums Supawoman (2007) and Party Loud All Year: P.L.A.Y. (2012), and compilation appearances on Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (soundtrack, 2009) and The Rising - Volume 1 (mixtape, 2017). Her filmography spans numerous Bollywood and regional films from 2007 to 2017, including Johnny Gaddar, Patiala House, Vanakkam Chennai, Sarrainodu, and OK Jaanu.