Singer Srinivas is an engineer who turned to playback singing for Indian films. He studied in Kerala and was coached in carnatic music by his aunt. Srinivas had developed a fine ear for music early in his life. He was born in Ambasamudram to Duraiswamy Iyengar and Lakshmi. Growing up in Trivandrum, he followed the bhajan groups, who walked by the streets, singing devotional songs during the month of Margazhi. He started listening to Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M. D. Ramanathan and others through his aunt Mrs. Padmanarayanan, his guru in music. The soul-stirring magic of Kishore Kumar-R.D.Burman deeply influenced him in his childhood days. He went to complete his B.Tech from Bombay University, Department of Chemical Technology; during which he represented his university in youth festivals. After pursuing his career as a chemical engineer for 10 years, his passion for music got the better of him. [edit] Career In 1988, Srinivas approached music maestro Ilaiyaraaja, who was at the helm of tamil film music. He was offered the opportunity to work with Ilaiyaraaja, but however things did not work out,as he was suffering from severe throat infection that day. It was later in 1992, that the soundtrack of Mani Ratnam's tamil film Roja reignited his dreams of playback singing. Mani Ratnam had introduced composer A. R. Rahman with this movie, who then went on to change the music scene on the Indian film industry. Encouraged by the use of fresh voices in Roja, Srinivas approached A. R. Rahman. Rahman took a liking to Srinivas's rendition of Mehdi Hassan's ghazals and offered him work at Chennai. In 1994, Srinivas shifted base to Chennai and started lending his voice to advertisement jingles and devotional albums. His first foray into playback singing began with the song Sorgam Enbathu Namakku from the movie Nammavar, composed by Mahesh. It went on to became a runaway hit. But it was only in 1996, that he gained recognition with the song Manna Madurai from A. R. Rahman's Minsaara Kanavu. Then came En Uyire in Mani Ratnam's Uyire (the tamil version of Dil Se). This A. R. Rahman's song catapulted Srinivas into fame. Srinivas has sung for leading music directors like Ilayaraja, Deva, Rahman, Vidyasagar, and in languages like Tamil, Malayalam, etc. He has made a foray into music direction through the tamil movie 'Ae Nee Romba Azhaga Irukke', in which he was one among the five music directors of the movie. And his composition 'Ini Naanum naanillai' in that film is a major hit. His famous albums include 'Ussele Ussele' and 'Paarvai'. Also he has worked as a co-composer to Praveen Mani for "Little John". He has also composed music for a Malayalam film titled 'Seethakalyanam'. The playback singer from South cut his first private album in Hindi titled Yeh Duniya Sab Ki. His other hits in Hindi include 'Kaisi Hai Yeh' from 'Dil Chahta Hai' and 'Zindagi' from the film 'Yuvvraaj'. He is a judge on a Vijay Tv show in Chennai called Airtel Super Singer along with Sujatha and Unikrishnan. [edit] Awards He has also bagged many prestigious awards. He was awarded the State Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu for his song 'Minsara Poove' from the Rajnikanth film 'Padayappa' and also the Kerala State Award for the song 'Baansuri' from the film 'Raathrimazha'. He was also conferred with the title 'Kalaimamani' by the Tamil Nadu Government. His other awards include The Cinema Express Award, ITFA Award, AV Max Award, Filmfans Award etc. He is also working as a music director in films and advertisements. He has sung more than 1000 songs in languages such as Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.