Their acting abilities are faultless and now, many of these actors have taken to playback singing as well.
What is the commonality between Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar, Real Star Upendra, Century Star Shivanna, Kiccha Sudeep, Ganesh, Meghna Raj, Radhika Pandit, Rocking Star Yash, Srinagara Kitty, Sri Murali, Aishani Shetty, actor-director Jogi Prem, and many more in the industry? Apart from being extremely good at acting, they can also sing! The tradition of actors turning singers has been an age-old phenomenon in the industry, and legendary actor late Dr Rajkumar remains on top of it. In fact, Dr Rajkumar is as good at acting, as his avatar as a complete professional playback singer. Infact, he even won a national award for playback singing for the number Naadamaya from the film Jeevana Chaitra. At present, Puneeth Rajkumar is considered a professional playback singer, and unlike others who have mostly sung for themselves, and occasionally for other actors. Bengaluru Chronicle reports on the actors with singing abilities.
Apart from Puneeth and Upendra, who sing more often, it is comedian-turned-hero Sharan, who has been a regular in the recent past, and has been singing for other star actor’s films. He was coined as the lucky singer by some directors too. He recently recorded a song for the most-anticipated movie Mugulu Nage which marks the comeback of the golden combination of Ganesh and Yogaraj Bhat after nine years. The actor-singer, who is also a regular in films featuring Shivanna says that he feels humbled when music directors approach for him to sing. The actor who hails from a family that worked in theatres says that his background helped him learn the basics of singing.
Recently, the beautiful actress Meghana Raj sang a song for the film Liftman featuring her father Sunder Raj. She had earlier sung for the film Bahuparak directed by Simple Suni. “I always loved singing as well as acting. Music is my passion. I got the opportunity to sing for Bahupark alongwith Srinagar Kitty. It was a great experience,” she says.
The pretty Radhika Pandit too had sung a song for her film Zoom alongwith Sri Murali of Ugramm fame. It was S Thaman, who made his debut in Kannada films who pushed Radhika to sing. “I had very little knowledge about singing, and when S Thaman felt that I could pull it off, and it would suit the situation, I gave it a try,” she had shared during the audio launch of Zoom.
Even Aishani Shetty who had a bit of experience in singing had sung for Rocket along with Puneeth Rajkumar. Sri Murali too has also been a regular with his playback for Rathavara which was an instant hit. Kiccha Sudeep too recently sang a number for the film Tiger, as a gift to his friend Nanda Kishore and Pradeep. Songs such as Mani Mani Mani by Shivanna is one of the most popular all-time hits and Upendra’s signature songs are hugely popular too. Even veteran Dr Vishnuvardhan’s song Tuttu Anna Tinnoke is one of the highlights in his long and starry career.
