Srinivas (singer)

Srinivas
Srinivas (left) with Rahman
Background information
Born	(1959-11-07) 7 November 1959 (age 57)
Origin	Ambasamudram, Tamil Nadu, India
Genres	Film Composer, Music Director, Playback Singer
Occupation(s)	Film Composer, Music Director, Playback Singer
Years active	1993–present

Srinivas is a playback singer who has sung over 2000 songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. He has also worked independently as a music composer, working on films and private albums.

Srinivas was born in Ambasamudram, Tamil Nadu, though his family moved and has since then lived his entire childhood in Thiruvananthapuram. He learnt Carnatic music from his aunt/guru Padma Narayanan, The great Carnatic stalwarts of the 60s influenced his early days.. After which Hindi film music chiefly that of Kishore Kumar-R.D.Burman deeply influenced him in his childhood days.{Later on it was the ghazals of Mehdi Hassan which redefined his singing

He completed his BTech from Bombay University, Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT, now known as ICT); during which he represented his university in youth festivals. After pursuing his career as a chemical engineer and a marketing professional for ten years, he decided to follow his passion for music.

In 1988, Srinivas approached music director Ilaiyaraaja, who was at the helm of Tamil film music. He was offered the opportunity to work with Ilaiyaraaja, but things did not work out, as he was suffering from severe throat infection that day.

In 1992, the soundtrack of Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Roja reignited his dreams of playback singing. Mani Ratnam introduced composer A. R. Rahman with this movie, who then went on to change the music scene in the whole Indian film industry. Encouraged by the use of fresh voices in Roja, Srinivas approached Rahman. Rahman took a liking to his rendition of Mehdi Hassan's ghazals and offered him work at Chennai.

In 1994, Srinivas shifted base to Chennai and started lending his voice to advertisement jingles and devotional albums.

His first foray into playback singing began with the song "Sorgam Enbathu Namakku" with Swarnalatha from the movie Nammavar, acted by Kamal Haasan. Music was composed by late Mahesh. It went on to become a runaway hit.