S.JANAKI BIOGRAPHY

S. Janaki

Born On: April23, 1938
Born In: Repalle village, Andhra Pradesh
Career: Playback singer
Nationality: Indian

Popularly known as the 'Melody Queen of South India' because of her voice modulation capabilities, S. Janaki is a devotee of Lord Krishna and Shirdi Sai Baba. Due to her versatility in the knowledge of languages, she has sung numerous songs in several Indian languages and a few foreign languages. Along with being a versatile singer, she is also a wonderful lyricist and music composer in Tamil and Telugu movies. She has sung more than 20,000 songs by now in different languages and won 4 National Awards for Best Female Playback Singer and 31 awards from different states, which is, itself, a huge achievement. She has worked with almost all the music directors of her time. She, along with S.P. Balasubramanyam and Ilaiyaraaja, is one of the most popular singing combinations in South India.

Early Life
S. Janaki was born in a Telugu Brahmin family in Pallapatla, Repalle village, in Guntur district of Madras Presidency, now Andhra Pradesh. Like other music geniuses, she had been extremely devoted to music right from her childhood. Her keenness to know more about music resulted in her first stage performance just at the age of 3. In order to learn the basics of music and become a professional singer, she took formal training in music from Sree Paidiswamy, a Nadswaram Vidwan. On her uncle's advice, she moved to Chennai and joined AVM Studios as a singer and there began her career with a Tamil film 'Vidhiyin Vilayattu' in 1957 under the music directorship of T. Chalapati Rao.

Career
Janaki recorded her first song on April 4, 1957, which was a pathos number under the music direction of T. Chalapati Rao. The very next day, she sang her very first Telugu song, "Nee Aasa Adiyaasa Chejaare Manipoosa Brathukantaa Amavaasa Lambaadolla Ramdaasa…," for the film 'M.L.A.', produced and directed by Sri Tilak, which helped her gain the requisite name and fame. It was a sorrowful number again, sung as a duet with Late Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, which is remembered even today as one of the classics of Telugu film music. The song was penned by Sri. Arudra, and was sung under the music direction of Sri. Pendyala Nageswara Rao. She turned historic with her first experimental song (light classical), 'Singaravelane Deva' in 1958, composed by Late S. M. Subbaiah Naidu for the Tamil film 'Konjum Salangai' as her voice competed with the Nadaswaram played by Late Karaikuruchi Arunachalam. The song was appreciated and applauded by one and all in the South as well as in the North, thereby bringing in lots of laurels.

Janaki went on to sing even the Telugu version of this song, 'Nee Leela Padeda Deva' in the film 'Muripinche Muvvalu'. Subsequently in 1961, Pendyala gave her a break with a solo song "Neeli Meghaalalo Gaali Kerataalalo Neevu Paade Paata' in the film 'Baavaamaradallu' in 1961. Two years later, Janaki debuted in Malayalam films. Incidentally, her first Malayalam song turned out to be a grieving number for the film 'Minnunnathellam Ponnalla', which was recorded at AVM Studios. Pronouncing Malayalam words was a big challenge for her. But she worked hard on the language, under the guidance of music composers and lyricists, and managed to speak it clearly. A fan of hers, Leela Chacko, called her up frequently, sometimes even in the wee hours. Janaki remembers that Leela became one of her good friends, and by speaking to her, Janaki's Malayalam improved.

Comprehending her work in the industry for more than four decades, she has sung thousands of songs for almost five generations of heroines. She sang several unforgettable songs with the association of the maestros of music. She even rendered thousands of songs in Kannada; thus, leaving a lasting impression in the hearts of Kannada fans. Apart from being a prolific singer, Janaki is also a good lyricist and a very good music composer. Seeing her caliber, producer Ramoji Rao chose her as the music director for his Telugu film 'Mouna Poraatam' in 1988. She is the third lady music director in Telugu cinema, after Bhanumati and P. Leela. While she was well-versed with all the four South Indian languages, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, she even sang in a number of other languages, such as Hindi, Sinhalese, Bengali, Oriya, English, Sanskrit, Konkani, Tulu, Saurasthra, Baduga, Japanese, and German.

Personal Life
Janaki married V. Ramprasad and lives in Chennai, along with her son Murali Krishna. Krishna has acted in some movies and has established his own audio business, while his wife, Uma Murali Krishna is a classical dancer.

Awards & Accolades
National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for 'Senthoora Poove', '16 Vayathinile', Tamil Film, 1977
National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for 'Ettumanoorambalathil', 'Oppol', Malayalam Film, 1981
National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for 'Vennello godari andham', 'Sithara', Telugu Film, 1984
Kalaimamani from the Government of Tamil Nadu, 1986
National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for 'Inji Idippazagha', 'Devar Magan', Tamil Film, 1992
Cinema 'Achiever Award' from the Government of Kerala, 2002
Special Jury Swaralaya Yesudas Award for outstanding performance in music, 2005
Honorary Doctorate from University of Mysore for contributions to Kannada Cinema, 2009

Timeline
1938: Born in Pallapatla, Repalle village, in Guntur, Madras Presidency
1957: Came to Chennai and recorded her first Tamil song for 'Vidhiyin Vilayattu'
1963: Debuted in Malayalam films with 'Minnunnathellam Ponnalla'
1977: Received first National Film Award for Tamil film '16 Vayathinile'
1981: Bagged second National Film Award for Malayalam film 'Oppol'
1984: Honored with third National Film Award for Telugu film 'Sithara'
1992: Won fourth National Film Award for Tamil film 'Devar Magan'
2009: Conferred upon with Honorary Doctorate from University of Mysore for contributions to Kannada Cinema.

Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao Biography

Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao

Date of Birth

4 December 1922, Choutuppal, Krishna Distirct, Andhra Pradesh, India

Date of Death

11 February 1974, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India (natural causes)

Mini Biography

The legend in telugu music, Ghantasala was born in 1922. His father Surayya was also a famous singer. During his childhood, Ghantasala used to dance to his father's Tarangams. After his father's death, his maternal Uncle Ryali Pitchi Ramaiah brought up Ghantasala. As he wished to learn classical music, he went to the only Music College in Vijayanagaram, without telling his family. He went through a number of hardships to learn music and went on to become a "Sangeeta Vidhwan". Ghantasala participated in the 'Quit India Movement' of 1942, for which he was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. After coming out of jail, he met "Senior Samudrala", who advised him to try his luck in the film industry as a singer. All India Radio gave him his first break as a singer when HMV rejected him. Later on, Peketi Siva Ram from HMV recorded his private songs. He joined Pratibha films and sang for chorus and acted as an 'extra' in A.N.R's film 'Seetha Rama Jananam'. Later Ghantasala worked with famous music directors like Gali Penchala, C.R. Subbaraman. His first movie as a music director was "Laxmamma". He composed the music for NTR's first film "Mana Desam". He became a famous playback singer with super hit songs for films like " Keelu Gurram" and "Laila Majnu". He sang more than 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malyalam and worked as a music director for over 100 films. He gave his voice for all the popular heroes of Telugu film industry. His private songs were equally popular and his devotional songs are popular even today. He has given performances in America, England, Germany etc and had the distinction of performing in the United Nations Organisation. Andhra pradesh Government felicitated him on the occasion of 25 years of his film career. His last gift to the people was his rendition of the Bhagavad Geeta, which is the most popular version even till today. His illustrious career came to an end on 11 February 1974.

UDIT NARAYANA BIOGRAPHY

Udit Narayan Jha was born on December 1, 1960 at Saptari, Nepal.He is popularly known as Udit Narayan is a playback singer in commercial Hindi-, Tamil-, Telugu-, Malayalam-, Kannada-, and Nepali-language cinema. He was born in a village called Bharadah in Saptari, Nepal. Udit Narayan has sung more than 15,000 songs in more than 30 different languages.

Udit Narayan began his career by singing Nepali, Maithili,Bhojpuri,Nepal Bhasa at first when he was in his native country, Nepal. After his arrival to India he began singing Hindi songs; a contribution for Bollywood. Then simultaneously he started Bengali, English. He has sung folk songs for Radio Nepal in the early 1970s. In 1978, he moved to Mumbai on a music scholarship. In Bombay, he got trained in Indian classical music for six years at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. He currently lives in Bombay.

He got his first break in 1980, when noted music director (composer) Rajesh Roshan asked him to do a song for the Hindi movie "Unees Bees", in which he got opportunity to sing with his inspiration, Mohammed Rafi. However the actual success story of his career began in 1988 with the successful Bollywood movie Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, fetching him a Filmfare Award[citation needed]. The film also happened to bring actor Aamir Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and playback singer Alka Yagnik to stardom. After the success of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, he became one of the leading playback singers in the Indian film industry, lending his voice mostly in Aamir Khan movies like Dil, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, etc. At the same time, he became a well-known celebrity in Nepal and sang in most popular Nepalese movies. He even acted in some Nepalese movies like "Kusume Rumal" and "Pirati" but did not achieve that much success.

Throughout the 1990s, he was one of the most successful singers in India. In 1995, his song "Mehndi Lagake Rakhna" from the movie Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge won him his second Filmfare Award after 7 years. The following year 1996, he got nominated for three songs out of five and won his third award for the song "Pardesi Pardesi" from Raja Hindustani.

He has worked with musicians like Rahul Dev Burman, Jagjit Singh, Anu Malik, Jatin Lalit, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, Vishal Bhardwaj, A. R. Rahman, Nadeem-Shravan, Rajesh Roshan, Shankar Mahadevan, Himesh Reshammiya, Pritam Chakraborty, Vishal-Shekhar etc., and leading directors like Yash Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Karan Johar, etc. These include Darr, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai, Mohabbatein, Devdas, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Swades, Veer Zaara, etc.

Udit Narayan is considered as one of the greatest singers of his generation along with Kumar Sanu and Sonu Nigam, whose singing abilities are often compared with legendary singers like Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar. Renowned singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Anup Jalota, Pankaj Udhas etc., have all collaborated with him.

His repertoire includes songs in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, English and Malayalam. At the same time, his discernible Nepalese accent and distinct pronunciation has many critics who find it difficult to decipher words in his songs.

He has worked in Nepalese films as well, in particular for composer Shambhujeet Baskota. During early singing career, he sang songs composed by Shiva Shankar, Natikaji and Gopal Yonzan. In 2004, he released his first private Nepalese album "Upahaar", in which he also sang duet songs with his wife Deepa Jha. It did well and one of the best selling albums of all time. He even ended up winning awards in two major categories - Record of the year and Album of the year during Hits FM Awards 2004, the most popular music awards in Nepal for the same album Upahaar.

Currently, he is in the panel of judges on Sony TV for Waar Pariwaar, a reality show based on the bringing together of a singing gharana, (family of singers) he shares judging duties with fellow playback singerKumar Sanu and Jatin Pandit of the famous music duo Jatin-Lalit. At the same time, he is one of the judges

He has most frequently sung for actors like Rishi Kapoor, Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan, Akshay Khanna, Saif Ali Khan, Hrithik Roshan etc,. Throughout the years he has sung numerous hit songs for these actors.

Udit Narayan is married and has one son. His wife Deepa Narayan, whom he married in 1985, is an accomplished Nepalese singer, and the two have recorded an album together titled Dil Deewana.

His son Aditya Narayan has also established himself as the voice of child artists in Hindi movies and acted as child artist in hit movies like Pardes, Rangeela, and Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai. His role as a son of actor Salman Khan in the movie Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai was widely acclaimed. However, Aditya Narayan has grown up and had taken a break from Bollywood since 2001, on account of his changing voice. He's now back on the scene and was hosting Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007 then Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs and is now back with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009.

On April 21,2006 - Ranjana Jha, a resident of Supual district in Nepal created a controversy by claiming to be Udit Narayan's first wife. While Udit initially rejected her claims, probably to avoid negative publicity, to avoid himself from anti-polygamy laws and possibly to protect existing family and his wealth, he finally agreed and reached a settlement with her.

k.s.chithra biography

She was born into a family of musicians. My father late Krishnan Nair was a well-known singer of yesteryears. His encouragement, single-minded dedication in giving me all the necessary training in my childhood days helped me a lot to develop into a playback artiste. Earlier lessons in music were given by my father himself.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: Passed B.A. in music with first class and third rank from the University of Kerala and had completed M.A. in music.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER: I received a comprehensive training in Carnatic Classical Music from Dr. K. Omanakutty, Professor of Music at Kerala University under the national talent search scholarship. I have been initiated into the film music field by Mr. M.G. Radhakrishnan through his films like "Attahasam", "Snehapurvam Meera", "Nan Ekananu”, etc., I consider the opportunity to sing with Dr. K.J.Yesudas in live concerts all over India and abroad and also for his Tharangini Cassettes as a turning point in my career. Famous Malayalam Music Directors like Ravindran, Shyam, Jerry Amaldev, Kannoor Rajan and Johnson were also instrumental for my rise as a playback artiste in Malayalam films.

Legendary Music Director SHRI. ILAYARAJA gave me the big break into Tamil films through his film "Nee Tana Antha Kuil". I got my first National Award for the songs in the mega-hit film "Sindhu Bhairavi" tuned by Shri. Ilayaraja himself. I consider Shri. Ilayaraja responsible for my rise as a noted playback singer in all the four South Indian Languages. And also composers like Ravindran, Johnson, S.P. Venkatesh, Mohan Sitara, Kanoor Rajan, S.A. Rajkumar, M.S.Viswanathan, Shankar-Ganesh, K.V. Mahadevan, Sathyam, Chakravarthy, Keeravani, Ouseppachan, Koti, Deva, Manisharma, Hamsalekha to name a few were kind enough to give me chances in various South Indian Languages. I have sung in Hindi Films also for prominent music directors like A.R.Rehman, Anu Malik, Sandip Chowta, Vishal, Rajesh Roshan, Sandesh to name a few.

I got the opportunity to sing in other languages like Oriya & Bengali of late. Since 1984 I have recorded about 11000 film songs in various Indian Languages, and about 4000 non-film songs.

KUMAR SANU BIOGRAPHY

Kumar Sanu is one of the most popular playback singers of Bollywood. He holds the Guinness Book world record for recording the maximum number of songs in a day, which are 28. He was born on 23rd September, 1957 and was named Kedernath Bhattacharjee. His father, Pashupati Bhattacharjee was a renowned classical singer and composer who noticed his son's talent at a very young age. When he was still very young, his father trained him to sing classical music and play the tabla. Given here is a small biography which captures the life history of Kumar Sanu. 

Kumar Sanu graduated in commerce from Calcutta University and then started giving public performances at small shows and restaurants in Calcutta itself. His style of singing was greatly influenced by the legendary Kishore Kumar. He badly wanted to become a playback singer but the competition in the Indian film is more than just fierce; it is ruthless. It took several years and a lot of struggle before Kumar Sanu was noticed by the great Jagjit Singh. He offered Kumar Sanu a chance to sing in the Hindi film Aandhiyan. 

Kumar Sanu came to Bombay when Kalyanji - Anandji offered him to sing for the movie "Jadugar". He was then asked to adopt a different name that was much more acceptable due to caste/region preferences. Thus, he started to work under the name Kumar Sanu instead of Kedernath Bhattacharjee. This gave him a wider appeal with the masses and he did not remain restricted to the Bengali mass. His real achievement however, came in the year 1990 with the movie "Aashiqui". 

The talented music directors Nadeem - Shravan gave him all but one song of the movie Aashiqui. Kumar Sanu proved himself with this opportunity and the songs took the entire nation by rage. Everyone hummed the songs that were touted as that year's biggest hits. Kumar Sanu became a star and also won his first Filmfare award as the Best Male Playback singer. He began recording for many more films and achieved much success with more and more hits. Some movies that are worth the mention are Saajan, Deewana, Baazigar, and 1942: A Love Story. 

He won five Filmfare awards for five consecutive years and by the end of 1990, he had sung for hundreds of films in different languages. However, during the prime of his career, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He was under medication after which he sang chosen songs. He cut down on singing and branched out, giving public performances and also acting in Bengali and Hindi serials. Some of his popular songs are given below.