EHSAAN NOORANI

Srinivas

He had developed the fine ear for music early in his life. When he was a mere kid growing up in Trivandrum, followed the bhajanai groups, who sang and went by the street during the month of Margazhi.He started listening to Semmangudi, M.D. Ramanthan and others through my aunt Mrs. Padmanarayanan,his guru in music. Then the soul-stirring voice of Kishore Kumar deeply influenced him during the length of my schooling years. Once in the Bombay University Department of Chemical Technology for his B. Tech in textile dyes, He fell in love with the ghazals of Mehdi Hassan and started representing his university in youth festivals.

He worked as a chemical engineer for 10 years, before his passion for music got the better of him. In those 10 years, he progressed in his career, moved to Coimbatore, and got married. He approached the music maestro Ilayaraja, the numero uno in the tamil filmdom during the 80s, who offered an opportunity but unfortunately it didnt work .

The singer is impressed with Rahman’s dedication to music. “He’s totally absorbed in his music, and there’s nothing else that affects him,” says Srinivas in praise of the maverick composer, “For him music is God. And he gets the best out of a singer.” A die-hard fan of ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan, and also addicted to R.D. Burman-Kishore Kumar hits, Srinivas has earlier sung for a couple of Hindi albums like Pagalpan and Ahsaas.

The playback singer from South cuts his first private album in Hindi titled Yeh Duniya Sab Ki, which boasts of a new sound on the Indi-pop front…. Also he worked as a co-composer to Praveen Mani for “Little John” now.

His first break came from Mahesh, for the Tamil film ‘Nammavar’. Its ‘Sorgam enbathu namakku’ was a runaway hit, and his career in singing launched successfully.Right from the start, Srinivas was keen to sing for Rahman, after he heard his haunting score in Roja. And his aim was fulfilled soon.He went and met A. R. Rehman after the phenomenal success of ‘Roja’ who auditioned him. He was then employed with a Trivandrum based company, as it’s regional manager. He made Chennai his base thereafter in 1994-95 and started doing the track for advertising jingles and devotional albums. To start with he did the chorus for Rehman’s ‘Manamadurai maamara kizhiyile’.

But he actually got noticed as ‘Oo..la la la’ happened (Film: Minsara Kanavu) to him. Then came ‘En Uyire…’ in Maniratnam’s ‘Uyire’, the tamil version of his hindi movie ‘Dil Se‘, and Srinivas was catapulted into fame. So much so that people started calling him ‘Uyire’ Srinivas ! After that, there has been no looking back for this singer.

Srinivas has sung for leading music directors like Ilayaraja, Deva, Rahman, Vidyasagar, and in languages like Tamil, Malayalam, etc. He has made a foray into music direction through the tamil movie ‘Ae Nee Romba Azhaga Irukke’, in which he was one among the five music directors of the movie. And his composition ‘Ini Naanum naanillai’ in that film is a major hit. His famous albums include ‘Ussele Ussele’ and ‘Paarvai’.His did Hindi assignments include “Doli Sajake Rakhna”, “1947-Earth” and “Raja ko Rani se pyar ho gaya” .