Rita Thyagarajan alias Sucharitha Thyagarajan (born 10 June 1984), known mononymously as Rita, 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 ...

who sings in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, Telugu,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, English,

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

and

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

languages.

Early life

Rita was born in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

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 ...

. She was exposed to classical music very early in life and started attending classical

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

lessons at the age of five. Her mother Lalitha Thyagarajan is a veteran illustrator and artist in Chennai and also a classical veena player while her father is employed with a popular Indian daily. She later started learning

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the Indian classical music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' ...

and has trained under celebrated masters in Chennai. Her sister is also trained in classical Carnatic music and runs her own design consultancy business in Chennai. Rita did her early schooling in P.S. Senior Secondary School in Mylapore and moved on to do a bachelor's degree in design from Stella Maris College like her mother and sister. It was in college that she discovered her penchant for other styles of music and experimented with commercial film and Western styles. She is also a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

and visualiser and co-founder of a design studio of integrated freelance professionals called Utopik.

Early career

Rita started her career with D. Imman, who contacted her after listening to her demo CD which she had recorded after college. "Yendan Varungaalaveetukaraney" from the movie ''Aanai'' was the first song she recorded and from then she has recorded over 300 songs and jingles in all major South Indian languages. She got her big break with the song "Vada Mapillai" in '' Villu,'' and then recorded songs like "Allegra" and "Mambo mamiyaa" for Kandasamy in Tamil. She was nominated for the

Filmfare Award The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Indian cinema.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were introduced by Filmfare magazine of The Time ...

for the song "Allegra". Her song "Vada Mapillai" won Best Song of the Year at the

Radio Mirchi Radio Mirchi ("''Mirchi"'' in Hindi meaning red chilli), also known as 98.3 Mirchi, is a nationwide network of private FM radio stations in India. It is owned by the ENIL, EntertainmentNetwork India Ltd (ENIL), which is one of the subsidiarie ...

Music awards. She recorded songs in Telugu like "Khilaadikoona" from '' Athidhi'' for Mani Sharma and "Panchadharabomma" for M. M. Keeravani which again won the Song of the Year award at the Radio Mirchi music awards. Rita has worked with music directors like

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979), is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use o ...

, Mani Sharma, D. Imman, Vidyasagar,

Devi Sri Prasad Gandham Sriprasad (2 August 1979), known as Devi Sri Prasad or more commonly by his initials DSP, is an Indian music composer, singer, and lyricist primarily known for his work in Telugu cinema, along with Tamil cinema. He has received numerous ...

, S.S. Thaman, M. Jeychandran, and M. M. Keeravani. She also performs for stage shows in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Sri Lanka, London, Amsterdam, France, Muscat, Canada, USA, and Australia.

Tamil

Telugu

Kannada

Malayalam

Television title songs (Tamil)

References

Rita - Sunrisers - Tamil / Telugu

* *
My first break - Singer Rita

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rita Thyagarajan Living people Indian women playback singers Telugu playback singers Tamil playback singers Kannada playback singers Malayalam playback singers Singers from Chennai 1984 births Women musicians from Tamil Nadu 21st-century Indian singers 21st-century Indian women singers