| | 4 | Leading South Indian film singer, actor, composer, producer and familiar dubbing voice. Born in Nellore, the son of a Harikatha performer. Studied engineering at Anantpur and Madras. First break as singer with composer Kothandapani. Sings in all four South Indian languages and in Hindi and Oriya. Broke through as singer in the MGR hit Adimai Penn (1969) and in K. Vishwanath’s musical megasuccess Shankarabharanam (1979) where he sang in the classical Carnatic style. First Hindi hit was K. Balachander’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), starring Kamalahasan. Known increasingly in the 90s for his acting (eg. Kadhalan, 1994). |