Veteran Playback Singer Vani Jayaram Passes Away In Chennai

CHENNAI: National Award-winning playback singer Vani Jayaram, passed away on Saturday at her residence in Chennai. She was 78 years old. She was supposed to receive the Padma Bhushan  (2023) - the third-highest civilian award in India recently. She had apparently fallen down at her residence in Chennai and had that she had an injury on her forehead and passed away.

Vani Jairam collaborated with some of the biggest composers across various industries and delivered evergreen chartbusters in all South Indian languages and Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Tulu, and Oriya (19 languages)  to her credit. She won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer thrice and also received State awards from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, and Odisha.

She won her first National Award for  Best Female Playback Singer for the Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal in 1975.She sang several hit songs and notably in director K Viswanath's films for which she won numerous awards in her collaboration with the Telugu film doyen. The legendary director passed away on Thursday.

She sang songs for  Seetamalakshmi (1978), Sruthilayalu (1987), Sankarabharanam and Swati Kiranam. She received her second National award for Sankarabharnam in 1980 and her third National Film Award for the film Swathi Kiranam for the song 'Anathineeyara Hara' in 1991. 

Known as the South Indian Meera, Vani Jayaram recently completed 50 years as a professional singer and had recorded more than 20,000 songs and was supposed to receive the Padma Bhushan award from the Government.

Born as Kalaivani on 30 November 1945  in Vellore Tamil Nadushe is trained both in Carnatic and Hindustani music. Her voice quality and vocal range were extensive and she could sing any difficult composition or sing in any pitch with ease.

She had an equally successful career in Bollywood films and some evergreen classics and her breakthrough came with the film Guddi (1971) directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Bole Re Papihara", featuring Jaya Bachchan in the lead role was a super hit. Another song Humko Mann Ki Shakti Dena became a famous school prayer since its release of the song in 1971. Mere To Giridhar Gopal in Meera (1979), composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar, won her first Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer.

Her husband  Jayaramor TS Jayaram passed away in 2018 and she was living alone in a house on Haddows Road, Nungambakkam in Chennai. The couple has no children.

Also Read: Tollywood Celebrities Mourn K Viswanath's Demise