Vijay Prakash (born 21 February 1976) is an Indian Playback singer and Music director from

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. He has given his voice for predominantly

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 ...

, Tamil, and Telugu language films, in addition to

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 ...

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 ...

and Marathi language films. He has also performed shows with Zakir Hussain. Prakash won the Karnataka Government's 'Best Playback Singer' award for the year 2016 for the song "Nammooralli Chaligaladalli" from the film '' Beautiful Manasugalu''. He is also one of four artists credited for the song " Jai Ho", which won the 2008

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the Film industry, motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who h ...

. Specifically, he sang the portion with the words "Jai Ho" that takes an extended high pitch at numerous junctures of the song. The song also won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

in the category "Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media." He has also won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Artist – Kannada twice for the songs "Gatiya Ilidu" from the Kannada film '' Ulidavaru Kandanthe'' and "Belageddu" from '' Kirik Party''.. He is one of the judges for the

and Tamil reality show ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa'' on Zee Kannada and Zee Tamil & the famous Telugu reality show Padutha Theeyaga on ETV, which was synonymous for previously being hosted by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam before his death in 2020.

Early life

He was born in

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

, India to Carnatic Artists Lopamudra and Late L. Ramasesha, and is himself trained in Carnatic music. He was trained carnatic classic music by Bellary.M.Raghavendra Vijay Prakash is married to Mahathi Prakash in 2001 and they have a daughter named Kavya Prakash.

Career

After moving to Mumbai in 1996, he became a student of Suresh Wadkar. Prakash was a participant in the program '' Sa Re Ga Ma'' on

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

, hosted by Sonu Nigam. He made it to the mega-finals in 1999. Later he compered ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa'' on Zee Kannada. He got his first break in

Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

with the film '' Baaz'' in 2002, and his first song for A. R. Rahman was in Ashutosh Gowariker's '' Swades'', followed by the same composer's Tamil title track for the movie '' New''. His song "Kavite" in

movie '' Gaalipata'' too became famous. He has done backing vocals for about 25 foreign films, including the film Couples Retreat, with music by A. R. Rahmaan. He has recorded for ads like "Kabhi chatpataa" for Knorr Soups and "Na sar jhuka hain kabhi" for HDFC Life Insurance. In 2008 he sang the "Condom a capella" ringtone composed by Rupert Fernandes and produced by the BBC World Service Trust for an Indian safe sex campaign. In 2009, his song, "Jai Ho"(Only chorus, original song sung by Sukhwinder Singh), won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song. He was one of the Judges in Confident Star Singer 2 (

), which aired on Asianet Suvarna in 2009. He has sung "Om Sivoham", a Sanskrit song penned by Vaali and composed by

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 ...

which was the main theme song of 2009 Tamil film Naan Kadavul. In 2010, he became a regular artist under composer A. R. Rahman, as he performed several of his numbers such as " Hosanna" ('' Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, Ye Maaya Chesave''), " Beera Beera, Veera Veera (in Tamil & Telugu Versions)" ('' Raavan & Raavanan''), "Powerstar" ('' Komaram Puli'') and " Kadhal Anukkal" ('' Enthiran''). Prakash has debuted as a music composer for the 2013 Kannada film '' Andar Bahar'' starring Shivrajkumar. He also won the Vijay Music Awards for the Best Male Playback for the song "Hosanna" from '' Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa''. In 2013, he appeared as one of the artists in Coke Studio @ MTV. In 2013, his song 'Khaali , written by lyricist Yograj Bhat, went viral on social media. The song 'Hoge' that he has sung for the film 'Nam Life Story' in Kannada is also going viral. In 2018, the song 'Bombe Helutaite' from the film '' Raajakumara '' inspired by the song 'Aadisi nodu bilisi nodu' from the film '' Kasturi Nivasa '' became one of the industry evergreen songs. It was written by '' Santhosh Ananddram'' . In 2021, the duo created another magical song dedicated to the student-teacher relationship named 'Paatashala' in the film '' Yuvarathnaa ''. Prakash was also the brand ambassador of Nissan Evalia 'moves like music' campaign, which featured six young prominent artists of India. He is one of the very few Indian musicians who have had the honour of performing at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.

Television

Discography

As a composer

As a playback singer

Kannada

Tamil films

Telugu films

Other films

Awards and Titles

References

Notes

BBC World Service Trust – India – Condom condom – video
at ''

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prakash, Vijay Singers from Karnataka Indian male playback singers Bollywood playback singers Telugu playback singers Indian television presenters Kannada film score composers Kannada people Living people Musicians from Mysore Film musicians from Karnataka Male actors in Kannada television Indian male television actors 21st-century Indian male actors 21st-century Indian singers Filmfare Awards South winners Indian male film score composers 21st-century Indian male singers 1976 births IIFA Utsavam winners