Kalpana Raghavendar

Kalpana Raghavendar
File:Singer Kalpana Raghavendar.jpg
Born	8 May Chennai
Nationality	Indian
Occupation(s)	Singer, actor, voice actor
Parent(s)	T. S. Raghavendar (Father) Sulochana (Mother)

Kalpana Raghavendar is an Indian playback singer, dubbing voice actor, song writer and actor. She started her career as a playback singer at a very early age. She has so far sung more than 1300 songs in various languages. She was the winner of South India’s competition Star Singer for Season 5.

Early life and background

Kalpana was born to T. S. Raghavendra and Sulochana on May 8th. Her father was a playback singer, actor and composer. Her mother was also a singer. She has a younger sister, Shekinah shawn (prasanna) who is an opera singer. Kalpana's grandmother, Lakshmamma was instrumental in getting her into singing as she used to persuade Kalpana’s father to teach her music. Kalpana would listen to songs on the radio and sing, after which her father began teaching her. He used to take her to recordings along with him. She sang her first song for a Telugu film when she was around 5 years old. Kalpana learnt Carnatic music under Sri Madurai T. Srinivasan, and western classical music under Augustine Paul.

Career

Child actor and dubbing voice actor

Kalpana started her career as an actor and a dubbing voice actor as a child. As a child she acted in 30 movies. Her first movie as a child actor was in the Malayalam film Ee Nadu, for which she was selected by director I. V. Sasi from 35 children auditioning. From then she acted for Telugu and Tamil films including Sitaramakalyanam and Dance Master. She also provided voiceover for many child actors, notably in the Telugu film Anjali.

Playback singer

She started singing professionally at the age of 5, and sang her first song for the music director Saluri Vasurao where she sang a family song alongside P. Susheela, Mano, M. M. Srilekha and her sister Prasanna. She sang many songs when when she was a child, including Podapoda punnaku for the Tamil film En Rasavin Manasile. As an adult, she started her career as a playback singer in 1999, working under music director Mani Sharma. Her first song was Mangalagouriki for the Telugu movie Manoharam. She worked with music directors and singers including Illayaraja, A. R. Rahman, K. V. Mahadevan, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, and Chithra, in different genres. She also performed in many stage shows in India and abroad.

Television

Kalpana was a judge for a Telugu singing competition show Bol Baby Bol Gurukul which was telecast by Gemini TV. She was a guest for many singing competition shows on Telugu and Tamil channels. She was one of the singers in the film Swarabhishekam telecast by ETV Network, which features Tollywood playback singers, and which was started in 2013. ETV conducted the program in India but and abroad. She participated as a team leader for six singers in the Telugu singing reality shows Super Singer 9, organized by MAA TV.

Achievements

In 2010 Kalpana was the winner of the south Indian singing show Star Singer season 5, conducted by the Malayalam TV channel Asianet in 2010. She is from Tamil Nadu, but learnt Malayalam and Malayali traditions, and received a standing ovation from K. J. Yesudas, K. S. Chithra, and Anuradha Sriram for her semifinal and final round performances.Winner of a Telugu singing reality show “SuperSinger 9” conducted by Maa TV in 2015.Participated as a team leader with 6 singers as a team. She gave mind blowing performances.

External links

• Television interview on ABN Andhra Jyothi
• Television interview on TV9
• Mother's day special on Vanitha TV
• Kalpana Raghavendar on Facebook