Padma Shri Awardee, Musician
Hariharan is a versatile and established ghazal singer, playback singer in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada & Telugu movies and one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. From a young age, he was also exposed to Hindustani music. Hariharan was inspired by Mehdi Hassan's Ghazals. Hariharan won the All-India Sur Singaar competition in 1977 and was immediately signed on by late music director Jaidev to sing for the Hindi film Gaman. Hariharan began his career by performing on the concert circuit and on television. He sang in a number of TV shows (e.g., Junoon). In addition, he released several successful ghazal albums, writing the majority of the music himself. "Abshaar-e-Ghazal" with Asha Bhonsle was one of Hariharan's first ghazal albums, and it went gold in sales. Hariharan made his debut in Tamil cinema with the patriotic song "Thamizha Thamizha" in Maniratnam's film Roja in 1992. "Uyire Uyire," also known as "Tu Hi Re" in Hindi, made Hariharan a household name and is still a fan favourite. Hariharan and Leslie Lewis formed the band Colonial Cousins in 1996. Hariharan has been singing professionally for 44 years and has sung over 5000 songs in 10 different languages.
Hariharan & Akshay Hariharan In Conversation with Tarsame Mittal
Hariharan, Priya Saraiya, Harish Shivramkrishnan, Akshay Hariharan