Sowmya Raoh is an Indian playback singer who has performed in

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

languages.

Early life and career

Sowmya was born in a Kannada speaking family to veteran singer B. K. Sumitra and Sudhakar in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, Karnataka, India. Sowmya has a brother named Sunil Raoh, who is an actor in the

Kannada film industry Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. The 1934 film '' Sati Sulochana'' directe ...

. Her mother is popular playback and devotional singer in Kannada. As a child, Sowmya would accompany her mother to the studios for recording. She then slowly graduated to become a child singer. Sowmya's father worked in

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

. Sowmya started singing at the age of seven. She took a break from singing while she was in school as she thought that would affect her studies. After a period of five to six years, she gradually turned her attention towards singing by learning

Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and Sri Lanka. It ...

. However, she ended up becoming a voice actor before venturing into films. She claims that, "I wanted to train for singing for heroines, not children".

Musical career

Sowmya started her career as a singer in south Indian films in 1993, and got a break in

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ...

nine years later. Her major break happened when composer Sandeep Chowta was looking for a singer who could sing well in Hindi. He chose Sowmya for a song ("Greekuveerudu") in the

film '' Ninne Pelladata''. The song gave her a much needed break. She went on to record the song in the Tamil and Hindi versions too. Sowmya started her career in Bollywood in 2000. Her first assignment was for the song "Soul of Jungle", followed by a background track for the film ''

Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya ''Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya'' () is a 2001 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film produced by Ram Gopal Varma, and directed by Rajat Mukherjee. It stars Fardeen Khan, Urmila Matondkar and Sonali Kulkarni. The soundtrack was composed by Sand ...

''. ''

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

'' was her first as a singer in Hindi. By this time she also sang for other Hindi films such as '' Dum'' and ''

Bunty Aur Babli ''Bunty Aur Babli'' () is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language crime comedy film directed by Shaad Ali and written by Jaideep Sahni, based on a story by Aditya Chopra, who serves as producer under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Abhishek Bac ...

''. In 2012, her item number 'Dreamum Wakeupum' for Sachin Kundalkar's

Aiyyaa ''Aiyyaa'' () is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language parody film starring Rani Mukerji and Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead roles. It was written and directed by Sachin Kundalkar and jointly produced by Anurag Kashyap and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures. The ...

emerged a chartbuster and the song was also appreciated for its dance performance by

Rani Mukerji Rani Mukerji (pronounced ; born 21 March 1978) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. Noted for her versatility, she is the recipient of multiple accolades, including seven Filmfare Awards. Mukerji has featured in listings of the high ...

and

Prithviraj Sukumaran Prithviraj Sukumaran (born 16 October 1982) is an Indian actor, director, producer and playback singer primarily working in Malayalam cinema. He has also done Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. He acted in more than 100 films in a variety of ...

. Having worked with composers such as

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one o ...

and

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 ...

, she recorded over 200 songs in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, as of 2006.

Selected discography

Accolades

Filmfare Awards

* 2013 –

Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Kannada The Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback – Kannada is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Kannada films. The first Kannada award was given in 2007. Before that, since 1997 till 2005, a common aw ...

for "Karagida Baaninalli" from ''

Simple Agi Ondh Love Story ''Simple Agi Ondh Love Story'' (or ''Simpalaag Ond Love Story'') is a 2013 Indian Kannada-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Suni, and stars Rakshit Shetty and Shwetha Srivatsav. The film was remade in Telugu in 2018 as '' Idi ...

Stardust Awards

* Stardust Award for Best New Singer for " Laila Laila" from '' Samay: When Time Strikes'' (2003).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raoh, Sowmya Living people Indian women playback singers Kannada playback singers Tamil playback singers Telugu playback singers Filmfare Awards South winners Singers from Bangalore Film musicians from Karnataka 21st-century Indian women singers 21st-century Indian singers 1973 births