Karthik (born 7 November 1980) is an Indian playback singer and composer. Karthik started his professional singing career as a backing vocalist and has since been working as a playback singer. He has sung more than 8000 songs in 15 Indian languages including

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Marathi and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

Early and personal life

Karthikeyan hails from

Tiruvarur Thiruvarur () also spelt as Tiruvarur is a town and municipality in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Thiruvarur district and Thiruvarur taluk. The temple chariot of the Thyagaraja temple, weighing and ...

district. He is a trained Carnatic music vocalist. He was part of a college band and regularly participated in IIT Madras Fest '' Saarang''. An ardent fan of

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

, Karthik's dream was to meet Rahman and sing for him. Playback singer Srinivas, who collaborated often with Rahman was Karthik's close friend's cousin. Srinivas encouraged Karthik to look at singing as a career, which prompted Karthik to resume his singing lessons. One year later, Srinivas recommended Karthik's name to Rahman, who needed fresh voices for backing vocalists for a song from '' Pukar''. Karthik eventually got the opportunity and recorded for the song. Having spent over a year being a backing vocalist, Karthik got his break during the Rahman's scoring of ''

One 2 Ka 4 ''One 2 Ka 4'' is a 2001 Indian Hindi language action drama film directed by Shashilal K. Nair. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Jackie Shroff. The score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman. This film is now owned ...

''. For the background score, A. R. Rahman wanted a high-pitched alap and he eventually chose Karthik to sing the alap. Soon after, Rahman asked him to sing the song "Nendhukittaen" from the film ''

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

''. Karthik was a CA aspirant before he became a professional singer. He is married to Ambika, they have a daughter and a son.

Career

Karthik has sung a number of songs for many popular music directors, including A. R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja,

Hamsalekha Gangaraju (born June 23, 1951), professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and a songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, di ...

Vidyasagar Vidyasagar or Vidya Sagar may refer to: People *Acharya Vidyasagar (born 1946), prominent Digambar Jain Acharya (1946-) * Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820–1891), Bengali scholar *Vidyasagar (composer) (born 1963), South Indian music director * ...

, Devi Sri Prasad,

Harris Jayaraj Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Telugu and two films in Hindi. He has been honoured with K ...

and Manisharma, in several languages – Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. "Ennaku Oru Girlfriend" from the Tamil film ''

Boys A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy is "a ...

'' was one of the biggest hits of the year as was "Oru Maalai" ('' Ghajini''; 2005). His songs for Telugu films for '' Kotha Bangaru Lokam'' (Nijanga Nenenaa), '' Happy Days'' (Arare Arare, Oh My Friend), "Badhulu Tochanai" ('' Mr.Perfect''), "Manase Guvvai" ('' Naa Peru Shiva''), "Oh Oh My Friend" ('' Oh My Friend''), "Yedhuta nlichindhi choodu" ('' Vaana''), "Meghama" ('' Journey''), "Yevvaro" ('' Bodyguard'') are very popular. His other popular songs include "Ava Enna" from the ''

Vaaranam Aayiram ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' () is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon and produced by Venu Ravichandran of Aascar Films. The film stars Suriya in dual lead roles as father and son, with Same ...

'' (2009), the title track from ''

Unnale Unnale ''Unnale Unnale'' () is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language romantic musical film.The movie is directed and co-written by Jeeva and produced by Oscar Ravichandran. It stars Vinay, Sadha and Tanisha Mukherjee in lead roles; Srinath, Raju Sundaram and ...

'', "Behka" from '' Ghajini''. Karthik has sung Kannada songs and has many super hit chart buster songs to his credit like Ale Ale, Anuraaga Aralo Samaya, Thangaliyalli Theli Hode, Nee Chummu Chummu Munjaaneli, Manasaithu Ninna Myaale, Sum Sumne Yaako, Hosadondu hesaridu Nanange, Kanne Koodiruvaaga, Madhumasa, Nenapidu Nenapidu, Thanthaane Thannamthaane, Baruve Odi Odi Nalidu, Raktha Sambandhagala, Saluge Saluge, Mannige Mara Bhaarave and many more. In 2010, he sang a track "Behene De", from Hindi film '' Raavan'', which is widely considered as the biggest song in his career. The track, which topped music charts for many continuous weeks, also received rave critical reviews. Karthik also performed the Tamil and Telugu versions of the same song, titled "Usure Poghudhey" and "Usire Poyene" respectively. He also sang "Adhigora Choodu" in the movie Mirapakaay. The song Yayum Ngayum from the album Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil is considered as one of Karthik's career best for the way how he has brought sensuality to the 2000 year old poetry. He received wide appreciations for the theme song of 10th World Tamil Conference from the same album Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil. The album was featured in Amazon's Top#10 International Music albums in July 2020.

Composing

He has composed music for a multi lingual Coca-Cola Advertisement (for Rajeev Menon featuring actor Vijay) and Prince Jewellery advertisements. He is the music director of Vasanthabalan's period film '' Aravaan'' and Srinivas Raga's '' Okkadine'' starring '' Nara Rohit'' and '' Nithya Menen'' in Telugu. He has also released an album called "Music I Like". It is based on carnatic ragaas and it is a contemporary take on some well known keerthanas. The orchestration was done by the music director Sai Madhukar. He is the composer of the segment 'Guitar Kambi mele Nindru' directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon in the Netflix anthology movie Navarasa (2021). He has also composed music for an upcoming film "Joshua Imai Pol Kaakha".

Filmography

As composer

* The films are listed in order that the music released, regardless of the dates the film released. * The year next to the title of the affected films indicates the release year of the either dubbed or remade version in the named language later than the original version. * • indicates original language release. Indicates simultaneous makes, if featuring in more languages * ♦ indicates a remade version, the remaining ones being dubbed versions

As independent musician

Karthik is a part of a band called Arka which is a contemporary fusion band. Arka denotes the Sun in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

and to rightly interpret the meaning, it is the warmth and radiance of music that spreads across everyone listening. With the exclusive intention of extending a new musical outreach, few renowned artists in unison have created this band and intend to broaden the horizons of Indian fusion music. Arka is the epicenter of an erupting musical form with core and artists like Karthik,

SelvaGanesh V. Selvaganesh is an Indian percussionist working in the Carnatic tradition and one of the leading kanjira (south Indian frame drum) players of his generation. He is also known as "Chella S. Ganesh." Career Selvaganesh gained world fame through ...

, Gino Banks, Ravichandra Kulur, Santhosh Chandran, Mishko M'Ba, and guest artists like the legends Vikku Vinayakaram and Swaminathan.

As dubbing artist

Dubbed and sang for the character Aladdin for its 2019 version.

Television

*2009 He sang the title song of the tamil serial named Thendral *2016 He co-judged the Musical Show

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Tamil Li'l Champs'' is an 2016 Indian-Tamil language musical reality TV game show, which airs on Zee Tamil. The show based on the Hindi Language show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs. The series is meant for young children between th ...

with

Vijay Prakash Vijay Prakash (born 21 February 1976) is an Indian Playback singer and also a Music Composer from Karnataka. He has given his voice for predominantly Kannada and Telugu language films. In addition, he has also sung in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam ...

and Sujatha Mohan *2017-2018 He co-judged the Musical Show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Seniors with

and Srinivas *2018 He co-judged the Musical Show

Season 2 with

, Srinivas and Sujatha Mohan *2018 - He co-judged the Musical Show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2018 in Telugu with Chinmayi Sripada and Ramajogayya Sastri *2019-2020 He co-judged the Musical Show Sun Singer Season 6 with

Mano Mano may refer to: People * Mano people, an ethnic group in Liberia * Mano (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Mano (Mozambican footballer) (born 1984), real name Celso Halilo de Abdul * Mano (Portuguese footballer) (b ...

and

Remya Nambesan Remya Nambeesan (born 24 March 1986) is an Indian actress, playback singer and dancer, who primarily works in Malayalam cinema. She started her career as an actress through the 2000 film ''Sayahnam''. She has acted in more than 65 films includin ...

*2022 He co-judged the Musical Show ''

Telugu Indian Idol ''Telugu Indian Idol'' is an Indian Telugu-language music competetion television series and is part of '' Indian Idol''. It is Telugu version of the '' Pop Idol'' format. First season of the show was premiered on 25 February 2022 on Aha. BVK ...

'' with Nithya Menen and

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. T ...

Awards

* Filmfare Awards South * Other Awards

References

External links

*
Listing of Karthik's songs in alphabetical order of albums

Listing of Karthik's songs in alphabetical order of songs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karthik 1980 births Indian male playback singers Tamil playback singers Telugu playback singers Kannada playback singers Living people Singers from Chennai Tamil singers Filmfare Awards South winners International Tamil Film Award winners Telugu Indian Idol