Chitra singer biography movies

A strong hold on Carnatic music and unconditional support from her family made K.S. Chitra a renowned classical singer. With this biography, explore all about K.S. Chitra profile and life.

Music of India : Composers & Playback Singers : K.S. Chitra

Born On: July 27,
Born In: Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala
Career: Classical singer
Nationality: Indian

Popularly known as Chinna Kuyil (Little Nightingale) of South India, she has shown her versatility in languages by singing in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Badaga and Punjabi films. Chitra has gained immense popularity for her melodious voice. It was her father who recognized and nurtured her talent by becoming her first guru. The year brought Chitra her first playback singing opportunity in Malayalam and since then, there was nothing that could ever stop her. She also performed live concerts with K. J. Yesudas in India and abroad and that was a turning point in her career. She has won the award for the Best Playback Singer more than 12 times and has the unique distinction of being the first female singer in the history of South Indian film playback singing to be honored by all the four southern state governments as the best playback singer.

Early Life
K. S. Chitra was born in capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. Right from her young age, she learnt the music basics from her father, late Krishnan Nair who was a singer and composer of repute. At the graduate and post-graduate levels as well, she chose to learn music and completed her B. A. in Music with the third rank from the university. She went on to complete her MA in music from Kerala University, for which she was chosen under the aegis of the National Talent Search Scholarship programme and was trained by Professor utty.

Career
In the year , M. G. Radhakrishnan introduced Chitra to Malyalam playback singing. "Attahasam", "Snehapurvam Meera" and "Njaan Ekananu" were the fir

K.S. Chithra is a playback singer in Indian movies, mainly Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Hindi, Assamese and Bengali movies.
Born on July 27, , in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, into a family of musicians, Chithra’s talent was recognized and nurtured from an early age by her father, the late Krishnan Nair. He was also her first guru (teacher). Chithra received her extensive training in Carnatic music from Dr. K. Omanakutty, after she was selected for the National Talent Search Scholarship from the Central Government from – She was introduced to Malayalam playback singing by M. G. Radhakrishnan in She made her debut in the Tamil film industry in Chennai under the guidance of film music composer Ilaiyaraaja. Her knowledge of South Indian languages and Hindi enables her to render songs with originality and perfection.
Chithra has performed all over India, Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, UK, France, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka, Western European countries like Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark.

Indian Musician

Musical artist

Chitra Iyer (also credited as Chitra Sivaraman) is an Indian playback singer who has worked in Indian and Italian films across five different industries primarily in Malayalam.

A resident of Bangalore, Chitra worked extensively with A. R. Rahman during the early s on his Tamil films, while also having an alternate career as a television host and actress on Malayalam television.

Career

Early in her career, Chitra Iyer attempted to reach out to composer A. R. Rahman to work with him, but found it difficult as she was based out of Bangalore. In , Rahman initiated contact with Chitra and invited her to come to Chennai with a demo cassette of her work, with Chitra recording a series of Tamil and Malayalam songs. On the day of her visit to Chennai, Rahman immediately heard the songs and hired her to record for the song "Athini Sithini" for the film Thenali () during the same evening. She subsequently continued to work for other composers in Tamil cinema including Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Bharadwaj and Vidyasagar under her post-marriage name of Chitra Sivaraman. Furthermore, apart from in her mother tongue of Tamil, Chitra continued to sing playback for Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films.

In the Malayalam entertainment industry, she had an alternate career as an anchor of a Malayalam singing show, Jeeva's Sapta Swarangal and hosted it under her maiden name, Chitra Iyer. Having done her education in Kerala, she had a good foundation in the Malayalam language, with her work on the show leading to further opportunities to sing for films.

Personal life

Chitra Iyer is married to former Air Force pilot Vinod Sivaraman since 12 July The pair met at the insistence of their parents at Chennai Gymkhana Club in early , and have since had two daughters Aditi and Anjali.Anjali is known for her performance in the Netflix ser

Indian playback singer

"Chithra" redirects here. For other uses, see Chitra.

Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra (born 27 July ) is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning around five decades, she has recorded over 20, Songs in various Indian languages languages such as Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Bengali, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Marathi, Tulu, Badaga, Banjara, Urdu, Assamese, Gujarati and Sanskrit as well as foreign languages such as Malay, Latin, Arabic, Sinhalese, Urdu (Pakistan), English and French.

Chithra, renowned for her extraordinary vocal talent, is widely recognised as the Golden Voice of India, a title bestowed upon her by the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, London in The Times Group has honoured her as the Melody Queen of Indian Cinema in , reflecting her immense contribution to the industry. She is also celebrated as the Little Nightingale of Indian Cinema,Nightingale of South India, and in different regions, she is known by various affectionate titles: Piya Basanti in North India,Vanambadi in Kerala,Chinna Kuyil in Tamil Nadu,Kannada Kogile in Karnataka and Sangeeta Saraswathi in Andhra Pradesh&#;and&#;Telangana states. She is also known for her extensive history of collaboration with music composers like A. R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraja, M. M. Keeravani, Hamsalekha, and with the playback singers K. J. Yesudas and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam over the years.

Chithra is a recipient of 6 National Film Awards, 10 Filmfare Awards South and 43 State Government awards from 8 states of India including 18 from Kerala, 12 from United Andhra