Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam (born 31 August 1981), also known by his initials A. D. K. or simply Dinesh Kanagaratnam, is a Sri Lankan R&B and

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

artist and music producer who has composed tracks in

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

. He also often collaborates with music directors in

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Ch ...

as a

playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

Early life and career

Dinesh was born in Badulla and raised in

Modara Modara (; ), also known as Mutwal ''(anglicised version)'', is a municipal ward of Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. The mouth of the river Kelani Ganga also lies nearby. It is part of the postal area ''Colombo 15''. See also * Rock House Army Camp ...

, Sri Lanka. He studied information technology (IT) in

Trichy Tiruchirappalli (), also known as Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with being the best livable and the cleanest city of T ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, India and started teaching IT courses in Sri Lanka. He began working with local musicians part-time to pursue his growing interest in music. In 2004, he was given a chance by Bathiya, an artist in Sri Lanka and started recording rap songs until he was discovered by

Vijay Antony Frances Antony Cyril Raja (born 24 July 1975), known professionally as Vijay Antony, is an Indian music composer, playback singer, actor, film editor, lyricist, audio engineer, and filmmaker working predominantly in Tamil cinema. He made his d ...

. He collaborated with him for the song "Aathichudi" for the soundtrack of the film ''

TN 07 AL 4777 ''TN-07 AL 4777'' is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language thriller film directed by A. Lakshmikanthan. The film stars Ajmal Ameer, Pasupathy, Simran and Meenakshi. It is a remake of the 2006 Hindi film '' Taxi No. 9211'' which was based on the American ...

'' (2008) in 2009 which is a remake of Surangani, a song from his first independent album, Tamizha Back in Sri Lanka, he did a cross-culture album in 2005 which includes songs in Tamil, Sinhala and English. His next throughout in cinema industry was "Magudi", which was his first collaboration with

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

for the

Mani Ratnam Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. H ...

-directed film '' Kadal'' (2013). He was featured along with

Anirudh Ravichander Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also credited mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian composer and playback singer who works primarily in Tamil cinema, in addition to Telugu and Hindi films. He has won two Filmfare Awards South, ten ...

for the song "Mun Sellada" in the film '' Manithan'' (2016), composed by

Santhosh Narayanan Santhosh Narayanan (born 15 May 1983) is an Indian film composer and musician who has predominately worked in Tamil cinema, while also having some Telugu and Malayalam films to his credit. He is known for his collaborations with Pa. Ranjith ...

. Kanagaratnam and rapper Sri Rascol formed a record label called Rap Machines and have done other rap musics. He continued to work in Tamil and Telugu cinema, writing and performing English language rap for soundtracks, including the title track "Maayon" in ''

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'' (2017) composed by

, the song "Gala Gala" featured with Megha from

Race Gurram ''Race Gurram'' () is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film co-written & directed by Surender Reddy and produced by Nallamalupu Srinivas under his banner Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions. The film stars Allu Arjun and Shruti ...

composed by

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Sivakumar (born 16 November 1983), professionally credited as Thaman S, is an Indian composer and playback singer known for his works majorly in Telugu and Tamil cinema. He is the recipient of the National Film Award f ...

and also a background score (which had been deleted later) in

Nerkonda Paarvai ''Nerkonda Paarvai'' () is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language legal drama film directed by H. Vinoth. Produced by Boney Kapoor, it is a remake of the Hindi film ''Pink'' (2016). The film stars Ajith Kumar, Shraddha Srinath, Abhirami Venkatachalam ...

. He also worked in '' 2.0'' (2018). Kanagaratnam has joined concert tours in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, India, Malaysia and Singapore. He is well known for his rap battles at every A. R. Rahman concert tours alongside

Lady Kash Kalaivani Nagaraj, also known as Lady Kash (born 1990), is a rapper, artist, and songwriter from Singapore. She has worked with composers such as A.R Rahman, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Anirudh Ravichander, Santhosh Narayanan, Harris Jayaraj, and T ...

and

Blaaze Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Sheshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman (born 15 October 1975), professionally known as Blaaze (), is an Indian Tamil language playback singer and rapper in Indian cinema who specializes in writing and performing rap m ...

. In January 2019, Kanagaratnam performed with

Bathiya and Santhush Bathiya & Santhush (), also known as BnS, are a Sri Lankan pop duo consisting of Bathiya Jayakody (born on December 22, 1976) and Santhush Weeraman (born on September 5, 1977), who met while at the "Mary Anne David School of Vocal Music and" i ...

at ''Oba Nisa'' in Sri Lanka.

Discography

Independent tracks & album

* 2005 - Cross Culture *2009 - Nagara Vaytai, Kuruvi *2011 - Dhoomi Dhaala *2012 - '' Aaryan - Goka Pearu'', Kuruvi, Hollaback Muniamma, You Ate My Money *2015 - Uyir Poo *2016 – present; RAP MACHINES - AYM Tribute, Vellai Poove, Maayavi, Pudhiya Era, Hollaback Muaniamma 2 and others. *2017 - Yeanadi Penne -

IRAJ Iraj (; Pahlavi: ērič; from Avestan: , literally "Aryan") is the seventh Shah of the Pishdadian dynasty, depicted in the ''Shahnameh''. Based on Iranian mythology, he is the youngest son of Fereydun. He was killed by his brothers Salm and ...

Ft. Krish Manoj & ADK - Melody By Chamath Sangeeth , ADK 155 Documentary Film, *2018 - Kannaley Kollathey *2019 - RAP MACHINES: Poraali Elvi ft ADK, 2.0 X Petta Mashup by Allan Preetham ft ADK

Playback singing

Television

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanagaratnam, Aaryan Dinesh Living people Sri Lankan Tamil musicians Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan rappers 21st-century Sri Lankan male singers 1981 births