Onkar Vaidya

Absolutely! There's no particular age to start to learn things. Every age has its advantages & disadvantages. You have to adjust yourselves around these things, which is notably not something complicated. Systematic Riyaaz & consistency are the primary keys to this. Do the riyaaz religiously & regularly and see the magic it does to your art as well as your life. I hope this answers your question—best of luck & Happy learning.

No, it's not essential. But if you do learn to play an instrument, then it has a huge added benefit. If you learn a melody instrument like piano, keyboard, guitar, etc., it will help you understand many aspects of a song like a chord progression, scales, and many such things. If you learn a rhythm instrument, it will benefit you to understand challenging and detailed aspects of rhythm like layakari, and it will also improve your rhythm sense a lot. It can help you much more than you could imagine.

I hope this answers your question.

Happy learning!☺️

First of all, I would recommend you to observe the process of recording for once by visiting a studio & trying to record any one of your best set songs on a karaoke track or with a keyboardist or guitarist. Once the recording is done, then please review how your voice sounds. Refer that recording to someone in the field of Playback singing or a Music Producer or a Recordist. Take the points where you need to improve and work accordingly as told by the person who knows about playback singing.
Many things, such as voice modulations, voice dynamics, proximity effect, etc., are to be taken care of here. Refer to the recording tips given by some of the most prominent playback singers & Music Producers, which you can find on YouTube & other such social media platforms.
This field of playback singing is much like the trial & error system that works in live singing. You learn and improve with time. But the most important thing is to keep learning throughout life.