A promising start

He is the voice behind such hits as `Ye Azhagiya Theeye' ("Minnale"), `Desing Raja' ("Dumm Dumm Dumm") and `Laila Laila Laila' ("Dhina"). Harish Raghavendra, the smart VJ-turned- playback singer came under the spotlight with the song, `Nirpaduve Nadappaduve Parappaduve', the maestro Ilaiyaraja's composition for the film "Bharathi". "It was a great feeling singing a song written by Bharathiyar. I owe it all to Raja sir," says the young singer.

Harish made his foray into films when he was hardly 18. He was in his first year B.Com at the Vivekananda College when he recorded a demo cassette of some songs and his family friend flautist Radhakrishnan circulated these among music directors.

The first to notice the talent in him was Raja, who introduced him to the Telugu audiences with "Panjaram" (1997). Around the same time, music director Vidyasagar gave him a break in Tamil with "Arasiyal". "After a gap of four years, I sang once again for Vidyasagar in "Poovellam Un Vasam", recalls Harish.

The young playback singer belongs to a family of musicians. His father Raghavendra a.k.a. Harish, a photojournalist, used to play the mridangam and his uncle, Palladam V. N. Rajan, was a well- known flautist. "I started singing only during my college days. I have had no formal training in music, but I used to listen to the radio and train my vocal chords. Winning prizes at college level competitions and in programmes conducted by satellite channels gave me the impetus to pursue singing as a career," smiles Harish.

But all was not too rosy initially for Harish and he was in a dilemma on whether to take up singing as a career or not. "For me, entering the recording theatre was not too difficult, but after that, finding a firm footing was a major struggle. During this period, television shows helped me a lot," says Harish.

Shows such as "Close Up Paduvor Padalam" on Raj TV, "Geethanjali" on Jaya TV and the top ten film songs programme, "Chikku Bukku" on Vijay TV proved his mettle. He also organised stage shows for TV 12 of Singapore.

Harish has also rendered songs for the Hindi serial, "Samarpan" under the baton of S. R. Vasu. "I started my singing career on stage with Gangai Amaran's troupe. That experience came in handy while conducting the shows on television". Besides, Harish had also sung a few devotional albums in Tamil and Hindi.

According to the singer, the best thing that happened to his singing career, apart from "Bharathi", was the encouragement he got from young music directors. "I was singing jingles for Harris Jeyaraj. So when he started composing music for films, he roped me in to sing for his debut movie, `Minnale' and ever since, he has been giving me opportunities to sing in every film of his. Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Imam and Manisharma, besides S. V. Krishna Reddy in Telugu, are regularly giving me assignments". He will be heard in about 25 films in the future, including "Manju", "Shahjehan", "Punnagai Desam" in Tamil and "Jabili" in Telugu.

Harish is currently doing his Masters in Mass Communications. He is also learning Carnatic music from Chenganur Thangachan and Ammapettai Krishnamurthy.

Interestingly, he has spurned a couple of acting offers that came his way. "My career is now taking shape. At this stage, I have no ambition to don the grease paint. I want to concentrate on my singing career," smiles Harish. Just like the song `Nirpaduve Nadappaduve Parappaduve', his career too has taken off to a flying start.

M. L. NARASIMHAM

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