Early and personal life
Karthik was born on 7 November 1980 into a Tamil family and hails from Tiruvarur district. He is a trained Carnatic music vocalist. He was part of a college band and regularly participated in IIT Madras Fest Saarang . An ardent fan of A. R. Rahman, Karthik's dream was to meet Rahman and sing for him. Playback singer Srinivas, who often collaborated with Rahman, was Karthik's close friend's cousin. Srinivas encouraged Karthik to look at singing as a career, which prompted Karthik to resume his singing lessons. One year later, Srinivas recommended Karthik's name to Rahman, who needed fresh voices for backing vocalists for a song from Pukar . Karthik eventually got the opportunity and recorded for the song. Having spent over a year being a backing vocalist, Karthik got his break during Rahman's scoring of One 2 Ka 4 . For the background score, A. R. Rahman wanted a high-pitched alap and he eventually chose Karthik to sing the alap. Soon after, Rahman asked him to sing the song "Nendhukittaen" from the film Star .
Karthik was a CA aspirant before he became a professional singer. He is married to Ambika, they have a daughter and a son.
Career
Karthik has sung a number of songs for many popular music directors, including A. R. Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja, Harris Jayaraj, Vidyasagar, Rahul Raj, Hamsalekha, Devi Sri Prasad and Manisharma, in several languages – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. "Ennaku Oru Girlfriend" from the Tamil film Boys was one of a sensational hit of the year . The same year he rendered the US-produced Malayalam album song Pularmanjupol Nee with famed playback singer Sujatha Mohan. The song composed by Rahul Raj became a chartbuster and subsequently an evergreen classic. In 2005, he scored his first hit with compsoer Harris Jayaraj singing "Oru Maalai" ( Ghajini ; 2005). His songs for Telugu films for Kotha Bangaru Lokam (Nijanga Nenenaa), Happy Days (Arare Arare, Oh My Friend), "Yedhuta Nilachindi Choodu" ( Vaana ), "Badhulu Tochanai" ( Mr.Perfect ), "Manase Guvvai" ( Naa Peru Shiva ), "Oh Oh My Friend" ( Oh My Friend ), "Meghama" ( Journey ), "Yevvaro" ( Bodyguard ) are popular. His other popular songs include the title track from Unnale Unnale and "Mundhinam Paarthene" and "Ava Enna", both from Vaaranam Aayiram (2009). The dubbed versions of his Tamil songs in Telugu are also popular.
Karthik has sung Kannada songs and has many super hit chart buster songs to his credit like Ale Ale, Anuraaga Aralo Samaya, Thangaliyalli Theli Hode, Nee Chummu Chummu Munjaaneli, Manasaithu Ninna Myaale, Sum Sumne Yaako, Hosadondu Hesaridu Nanange, Kanne Koodiruvaaga, Madhumasa, Nenapidu Nenapidu, Thanthaane Thannamthaane, Baruve Odi Odi Nalidu, Raktha Sambandhagala, Saluge Saluge, Mannige Mara Bhaarave and many more.
"Behka" from Ghajini is also popular. In 2010, he sang a track "Behene De", from Hindi film Raavan , which is widely considered as the biggest song in his career. [2] The track, which topped music charts for many continuous weeks, also received rave critical reviews. [2]
The song Yayum Ngayum from the album Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil is considered one of Karthik's career best for the way how he has brought sensuality to the 2000 year old poetry. He received wide appreciations for the theme song of the 10th World Tamil Conference from the same album Sandham: Symphony Meets Classical Tamil. The album was featured in Amazon's Top#10 International Music albums in July 2020. [3] [4]
Composing
He has composed music for a multi lingual Coca-Cola Advertisement (for Rajeev Menon featuring actor Vijay) [5] and Prince Jewellery advertisements. He is the music director of Vasanthabalan's period film Aravaan and Srinivas Raga's Okkadine starring Nara Rohit and Nithya Menen in Telugu.
He has also released an album called "Music I Like". It is based on carnatic ragaas and it is a contemporary take on some well known keerthanas. The orchestration was done by the music director Sai Madhukar. [6]
He is the composer of the segment 'Guitar Kambi mele Nindru' directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon in the Netflix anthology movie Navarasa (2021). He has also composed music for an upcoming film "Joshua Imai Pol Kaakha".
Discography
As composer
- The films are listed in the order the films were released.
As independent musician
Karthik is a part of a band called Arka which is a contemporary fusion band.
Arka denotes the Sun in Sanskrit and to rightly interpret the meaning, it is the warmth and radiance of music that spreads across everyone listening. With the exclusive intention of extending a new musical outreach, few renowned artists in unison have created this band and intend to broaden the horizons of Indian fusion music.
Arka is the epicenter of an erupting musical form with core and artists like Karthik, SelvaGanesh, Gino Banks, Ravichandra Kulur, Santhosh Chandran, Mishko M'Ba, and guest artists like the legends Vikku Vinayakaram and Swaminathan.
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