Vasundhara Das

Vasundhara Das (born 27 October 1977) is an Indian singer, actress, composer, entrepreneur, speaker, songwriter and environmental activist.

Vasundhara Das
Das at an event in 2008
Born	(1977-10-27) 27 October 1977 Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Occupation	Singer, actor, composer, entrepreneur, speaker, songwriter
Years active	1998–present
Spouse(s)	Roberto Narain ( m. 2012)

Vasundhara's films include Hey Ram (Tamil/Hindi), Monsoon Wedding (English), Citizen (Tamil), Ravana Prabhu (Malayalam), Lankesh Patrike (Kannada) and several others. Vasundhara has worked with composers such as A. R. Rahman, Vijaya Bhaskar, Yuvan Shankar Raja and G. V. Prakash Kumar to name a few.

Vasundhara's current focus is on music composition at her Bangalore based studio called The Active. She has also been involved in several independent projects such as Channel V Jammin', BBC's HIV awareness anthem for India 'Har Kadam', Mission Ustaad, Arya, Global Rhythms, Nylon Soundz and most recently, The Shah Hussain Project, a collaborative album with Sufi singer Mir Mukhtiyar Ali.

She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Tamil for the film Mudhalvan[1]

Personal life

She was born into a Tamil Hebbar Iyengar Brahmin family on 27 October 1977 in Bangalore, Karnataka and studied at Cluny Convent High School, Bangalore, Sri Vidya Mandir, Bangalore and Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, graduating in Economics, Statistics and Mathematics. She began training in Hindustani classical music under her grandmother Indira Das and later trained under Lalita Kaikini and Pandit Parameshwar Hegde.

In her college days, she was a lead singer of a girl band and was soprano in the college choir. In an interview, she states that - "I got booed off the first time I sang on stage".[2] She is a polyglot and speaks Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, English, Malayalam, and Spanish. In 2012, Vasundhara married her long-time friend, Roberto Narain, a drummer.[3]

Career

As an actress

Vasundhara at the MTV Immies Awards

In 1999, Vasundhara began acting with Kamal Hassan in the film Hey Ram. She played the lead actress alongside Mohanlal in the Malayalam movie Raavana Prabhu, with Ajith Kumar in the Tamil movie Citizen and with Darshan in the Kannada movie Lankesh Patrike. She also starred in Mira Nair's movie Monsoon Wedding.

Music

She worked with playback singing career with A. R. Rahman's Tamil film Mudhalvan, for which she sang the song "Shakalaka Baby", and thereby winning the Filmfare Best Female Playback Singer Award 2001. She has a French single out in France called L'ete Indien in collaboration with Paris-based Agrumes Studio. She was a founding member of Arya, a world music band that has performed in Europe and America and broke up in 2004.

Other Work

As a speaker, she has given talks at conferences like INK Talks in association with TED, Confederation of Indian Industries' Conference for Women Entrepreneurs, AIMA's 7th National Brand Summit, TEDx and The Mentor Conclave. She wrote the inaugural blog post for IIT Kanpur's eCell Blog. As an entrepreneur, Vasundhara, along with partner Roberto Narain run DRUMJAM, a company that uses the medium of music and rhythm for corporate training, team building and community building. Her studio with partner Roberto Narain, The Active, has produced The Shah Hussain Project, an album of contemporary Sufi music. Also, she has done a critically acclaimed play Wake up Call with an off-Broadway Theatre company, Chilsag Chillies in 2012.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
2000	Hey Ram	Mythili Iyengar	Tamil/ Hindi	Debut feature film
2001	Monsoon Wedding	Aditi Verma	Hindi/English
2001	Citizen	Indhu	Tamil
2001	Ravanaprabhu	Mundackal Janaki	Malayalam
2003	Lankesh Patrike	Preethi	Kannada
2003	Film Star	Lila, An Inmate	Hindi
2004	Vajram	Gemini	Malayalam
2004	Pathar Bezubaan	Kalpana Varma	Hindi
2006	Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana	Natasha	Hindi
2006	Corporate	Herself	Hindi
2007	Ek Dastak	Akansha	Hindi

Discography

Year	Movie	Song Title	Composer	Co-Singer
1999	Mudhalvan	"Shakalaka Baby"	A. R. Rahman	Pravin Mani
2000	Rhythm	"Ayyo Pathikichu"	A. R. Rahman	Udit Narayan
	Azad	"Sonare"	Mani Sharma	Udit Narayan
	Kushi	"Kattipudi Kattipudida"	Deva	Shankar Mahadevan
Moodu Mukkalaata	"Prema Vikramarkudu"	M. M. Srilekha	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
2001	Citizen	"Pookari Pookari"	Deva	Shankar Mahadevan
		"I Like You"
	Lagaan	"O Rey Chhori"	A. R. Rahman	Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
2002	Adrustam	"Hollywood Handsome"	Dhina	Karthik
2003	Boys	"Sarigame"	A. R. Rahman	Lucky Ali
		"Dating"
	Misamma	"Ney Padithe Lokamey Padadha"	Vandemataram Srinivas
	Juniors	"Night Jorugunnadi"	Chakri	Tippu
	Mee Intikosthe Yem Istharu Maa Intikosthe Yem Testharu	"Cienmallo Gani"	Ghantadi Krishna
	Kal Ho Naa Ho	"its the tme to disco"	Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy	KK, Loy Mendonsa, Shaan, sadhna sargam
2004	Sye	"Sye"	M. M. Keeravani	Kalyani Malik, Smita
		"Ganga AC"
	Thumsup	"Vanitha Vanitha"	Jeevan Thamos
	Manmadha	"Thathai Thathai"	Yuvan Shankar Raja	Devi Sri Prasad
	Monalisa	"Kurrakaru Hero"	Valisha Babji	Shankar Mahadevan
2005	Aparichithudu	"Naaku Neeku Nokia"	Harris Jayaraj	Kunal Ganjawala
2006	Happy	"I Hate You"	Yuvan Shankar Raja	Ranjith
	Mayabazaar	"Andulona Undi"	K. M. Radha Krishnan	K. M. Radha Krishnan
	Hanumanthu	"Neevu Kottina"	Vandemataram Srinivas	Naveen
	Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna	"Where's The Party Tonight?"	Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy	Joi Barua, Shaan
Sarada Saradaga	"Yenno Janma Janmala"	S. V. Krishna Reddy	Kunal Ganjawala
2007	Vijayadasami	"Deepavali"	Srikanth Deva	Naveen
	Sillunu Oru Kaadhal	"Machhakkari"	A. R. Rahman	Shankar Mahadevan
2008	Ullasamga Utsahamga	"Chakori"	G. V. Prakash Kumar	Benny Dayal
2012	Yamudiki Mogudu: Ee Nela Thakkuvodu	"Narottama Narottama"	Koti

References

1. "47th Annual Filmfare South Best Playback Singer : Santosh : Free Down…". archive.is. 5 February 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
2. "Musical Queen Reviving the Roots of Music". Retrieved 21 January 2015.
3. "Manglorean – Vasundhara wedding". Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2013.

External links

• Vasundhara Das on IMDb