The interview which appears below, was originally published on The Hindu in September 2008. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
How it happened
I started singing at 13, and gave my first performance in August, 1987 for the Youth Association for Classical Music. The leading artists of today were the office bearers and there were many stalwarts such as my grandmother D. K. Pattamal, granduncle D. K. Jayaraman and R. K.Venkatrama Sasthri in the audience. The chief guest was none other than K. V. Narayanaswamy.
I was nervous, but once I sat on the dais I was determined to sing well and uphold the great reputation built over the years by my grandparents D. K. Pattammal and Palghat Mani Iyer. With my guru’s blessings, I got the best performance award. Opportunities followed. After singing for nearly 10 years, I got an offer from A. R. Rahman to sing for the film Jeans. On January 5, 1998 I sang ‘Kannodu Kanbathellam’, but did not know how it would sound. When I heard it I was stunned by the genius of Rahman, who drew the best out of me.
How it felt
‘Kannodu…’ took my popularity to dizzy heights. I came to be known to the masses. My song in Padaiyappa (‘Minsara Kanna’) got me the Tamil Nadu State award. I have also sung the ‘Ra Ra’ song for Chandramukhi in Telugu and Kannada. Though my focus is on Carnatic music, I have sung close to 100 film songs in all the South Indian languages so far.
How life changed
I was a known name even before playback singing happened. But film songs made me more popular. Now I am more focussed on my singing and uphold our family tradition. I have sung in nearly 300 albums and have composed music for about 15 albums, the recent being “Arpudame” on Sathya Sai Baba.
