Pradeep Kumar (singer)
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Pradeep Rangaswamy Kumar (born 12 May 1986) is an Indian
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 ...
and music director who has worked in Tamil language films. After beginning his career as a Carnatic musician, he has regularly collaborated with composers
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 ...
and
Sean Roldan Raghavendra Raja Rao, known by his stage name Sean Roldan is an Indian composer, musician, and lyricist who predominantly works in the Tamil film industry. He has worked on Carnatic music, independent music, and film scores for the Tamil film i ...
.


Career

Born to a police inspector father and a music teacher mother, Pradeep Kumar grew up in
Tiruchirappalli 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 ...
. His mother, Lalitha Vijayakumar, taught Carnatic music through private lessons and at a government school in the area, meaning that Pradeep Kumar was constantly exposed to Carnatic music as a youngster and often joined his mother in singing at home. He later was introduced as a playback singer in Tamil cinema through the film ''
Attakathi ''Attakathi'' () is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Pa. Ranjith and produced by C. V. Kumar under Thirukumaran Entertainment, starring Dinesh, Nandita Swetha and Aishwarya Rajesh. The film revolves ...
'' 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 ...
He later began studying music under J. Venkataraman from the Aalathur School of music, who became his first guru. Outside music, Pradeep Kumar studied science, wrote the engineering entrance examination and joined an engineering college in Thanjavur hoping to become a theoretical physicist. However, after a week, he decided to opt out of college. As a backup career plan, he instead pursued a diploma course in audio engineering, which also taught him more about sound composition. In 2003, Pradeep Kumar visited Chennai to participate in a competition conducted by the music studio, Carnatica. K. Shashikiran of Carnatica heard him sing and requested that he stay back in Chennai and subsequently from 2003 to 2005, Pradeep Kumar stayed in Chennai to collaborate with Carnita, and his parents joined him later. He continued to perform in
katcheri A katcheri is an assembly of musicians and audience in the context of Carnatic music. It is presented in the concert format. The music fraternity of connoisseurs and common people assemble at the katcheri venues to listen to classical music conc ...
s across Chennai and abroad, while also briefly serving as the secretary of the Youth Association of Classical Music, Chennai. Pradeep Kumar later became nuanced in western classical music after apprenticing with Augustin Paul, and also worked as an audio engineer for four years. In 2014, he worked on a documentary called ''Arunagiri Perumale'', which was a live concert recording of a three-piece Indian band along with a 16-piece chamber symphony orchestra, which had taken place in 2014, in Boston. He described the venture as his "pet project", and relied on crowd-funding to get it completed by 2017. During the same period, he married his fellow singer,
Kalyani Nair Kalyani Nair is a singer from Chennai, India (born in HIRUVANANTHAPURAM, KERALA). She is active in the Tamil cinema industry, Kollywood. As a schoolgirl, Kalyani first appeared on Television in an episode of ''Symphony'' on Kairali TV. One of he ...
. He also worked as a composer on his first film album for the Telugu project, ''
Maine Pyar Kiya ''Maine Pyar Kiya'' (), also known by the initialism ''MPK'', is a 1989 Indian Hindi-language romantic musical film directed by Sooraj Barjatya in his directorial debut. Produced by Tarachand Barjatya, the film was co-written by S. M. Ahale ...
'' (2014). Through his work as a musician, Pradeep Kumar became acquainted with composer
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 ...
. The pair had first met in Trichy when Pradeep Kumar was 18 and then continued to jam together, while studying for the same course in audio engineering. After Santhosh Narayanan became a film composer, Pradeep Kumar regularly worked as his acoustic guitarist. He later featured prominently as a singer, often collaborating with Santhosh Narayanan and another friend
Sean Roldan Raghavendra Raja Rao, known by his stage name Sean Roldan is an Indian composer, musician, and lyricist who predominantly works in the Tamil film industry. He has worked on Carnatic music, independent music, and film scores for the Tamil film i ...
in their albums including '' Jigarthanda'' (2014), ''
Irudhi Suttru () is a 2016 Indian sports drama film written and directed by Sudha Kongara. Filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi, with the latter being titled as (), the film stars R. Madhavan as boxing coach who is ignored by the boxing association, ...
'' (2016) and ''
Kabali ''Kabali'' is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Pa. Ranjith and produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu under V Creations. The film stars Rajinikanth, Winston Chao, Radhika Apte, Sai Dhanshika, Kishore, Dinesh Ravi, Kalaiyar ...
'' (2016). He had also worked as a lyricist in ''Jigarthanda''. In 2016, a music critic from
The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
labelled the three as "the new-age musical trio of Tamil cinema". In 2017, Pradeep Kumar made his debut as a music composer in Tamil cinema after Santhosh Narayanan had convinced the producers of ''
Meyaadha Maan ''Meyaadha Maan'' () is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Rathna Kumar in his feature directorial debut and produced by Karthik Subbaraj's Stone Bench Creations. The film stars Vaibhav and Priya Bhavani ...
'' to allow him to work on the film. Subsequently, Rathna Kumar who directed Meyaadha Maan selected him as a music director for
Amala Paul Amala Paul (born 26 October 1991) is an Indian actress and producer who is primarily working in Tamil and Malayalam films, in addition to some Telugu and Hindi films. She is a recipient of a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, a Filmfare Award Sou ...
's next film, Aadai.


Discography


Composer


Playback singer


Singles


Awards

*
Kerala State Film Awards The Kerala State Film Awards are the film awards for a motion picture made in Kerala. The awards started in 1969 by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala and since 1998 the awards have been bestowed by Kerala State Cha ...
*
Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards The Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards are annual awards in recognition for cinematic merit in the Tamil film industry. The awards ceremony is presented by the Tamil language weekly magazine ''Ananda Vikatan''. The awards were introduced in the year ...
*
Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...
*
South Indian International Movie Awards The South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA Awards) rewards the artistic and technical achievements of the South Indian film industry. It was launched in 2012 by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Brinda Prasad Adusimilli to appreciate and hono ...
*
Vijay Awards The Vijay Awards are presented by the Tamil television channel STAR Vijay to honour excellence in Tamil cinema. It has been given annually since 2006, with the latest—the 10th edition—of the award-giving ceremony having been held i ...
*
Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards is the annual film festival conducted in Oslo to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Tamil film industry. NTFF was arranged for the first time in 2010 by VN Music Dreams. NTFF i ...
* Behindwoods Gold Medal


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Pradeep 1986 births Indian male playback singers Living people Singers from Chennai Tamil playback singers Tamil film score composers Musicians from Tiruchirappalli Filmfare Awards South winners Indian male film score composers