Bathiya & Santhush (BNS) are a popular Sri Lankan pop/rap duo comprising of Bathiya. J and Santhush.W, who met while at Mary Anne David's school for singing in Colombo (traning mainly under the categorise of classical and show tunes). Since the inception in 1998, they have released six albums and had seven Sri Lankan number one singles. Bathiya & Santhush are one of the biggest musical acts to hit the Sri Lankan musical scene since the 1970's, mixing both sinhalese and English lyrics in their originals, bringing out their contemporary style and revolutionising the music industry in Sri Lanka. In 2002 they signed on a contract with Universal Music, becoming Sri Lanka's first recording & performing artistes to be offered such a contract by an international music publishing company. In 2001, they were runner-ups at the Voice of Asia Music Festival in Kazakhstan, where they won silver. They were rated no 2 in the Euro-Asia region and No. 1 in Asia. They won the bronze award at Shanghai Music Festival in China. Their album Neththara was released in 2005 and sold up to 75,000 copies in just 5 months. The album has been ranked as one of the biggest selling Sony Music releases in Sri Lanka. In 2006, they release their debut movie soundtrack for the movie Hiripodha Wessa and their second movie soundtrack (Piyambanna Aasai) is to be released soon. Their latest album to be released was Ayubowan (Namaste). It consists of their popular tracks re-done in Hindi, therefore placing emphasis on the Indian market, making them the first Sri Lankan artistes to launch an album in India. The music video of Oh Sathi which feature Sri Lankan Cricketer's Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas is a popular song on MTV India (Music television). They are also responsible for songs on the soundtrack of the singhala film "Asai Mang Piyambanna" ( I like to fly), which has broken many records and also includes their hit song "Pathu Pem Pathum". (read less)