Vasundhara Das
Vasundhara Das (born 27 October 1977) is an Indian singer, actress, composer, entrepreneur, speaker, songwriter and environmental activist.
Vasundhara Das | |
|---|---|
 Das in 2010 | |
| Born | 27 October 1977 |
| Occupation | Singer, actor, composer, entrepreneur, speaker, songwriter |
| Years active | 1998–2012 |
| 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.
Vasundhara's current focus is on music composition at her Bangalore-based studio, 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][2]
Personal life
She was born into a Hebbar Iyengar 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".[3] She speaks Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, English, Malayalam, Hindi and Spanish. In 2012, Vasundhara married her long-time friend, Roberto Narain, a drummer.[4]
Career
As an actress
In 1999, Vasundhara began acting with Kamal Haasan 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.
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
References
- "47th Annual Filmfare South Best Playback Singer : Santosh : Free Down…". archive.is. 5 February 2017. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
- "Vasundhara's focus is now music therapy | Deccan Herald".
- "Musical Queen Reviving the Roots of Music". Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- "Manglorean – Vasundhara wedding". Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2013.
