Biography
Chitra was introduced to Malayalam playback singing by M. G. Radhakrishnan in 1979 and went on to become a regular singer for many malayalam musicians including Raveendran and the likes. Her hundreds of duets with K. J. Yesudas in Malayalam and thousands with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam in all other languages are the most hummed songs by the music lovers. She made her debut in the Tamil film industry in Chennai under the guidance of film music composer Ilaiyaraaja. Poojaikketra poovithu song Film- Neethana Antha kuil is the first song in Tamil music by Ilaiyaraaja. Her knowledge of South Indian languages and Hindi enables her to render songs with originality and perfection. Ilaiyaraaja has contributed so much to Chitra's glory. Fazil was doing a remake his Malayalam movie in Tamil Poove Poochudava a strong subject movie with wonderful music of Ilayaraja. Raja heard Chitra’s voice in the Malayalam version and got impressed by that and asked her for audition. Then her turn came for the movie Nee thana antha kuyil with a beautiful song “Poojaiketa Poovidhu”. “Antha Kuyil has incidentally become China Kuyil of South India”. Since then, she has sung some wonderfully melodious songs mostly with classical overtures in Tamil Films and it is astounding that Ilaiyaraaja & A. R. Rahman have fetched her some memorable songs leading to the National awards. She also delivered some most memorable songs for M. S. Viswanathan, G. Devarajan, Deva, Vidyasagar, Ouseppachan, M. Jayachandran, M. M. Keeravani, Hamsalekha, Sharath, Raj-Koti, Rajan-Nagendra, S. A. Rajkumar, Mani Sharma, Harris Jayaraj, Devisri Prasad and many other south Indian music directors. She gave a touch of vibrance and youthfulness to many Actresses in southern Cinema with her lovely voice.[1]. She is the inspiration for many upcoming female playback singers.She is the only south Indian playback singer who is well accepted in all major South Indian languages after P. Susheela, S. Janaki, Vani Jayaram and P. Leela.
Chitra is also a house hold name in Bollywood music. She has recorded many memorable Hindi songs for various music directors of bollywood namely Anand-Milind, Anu Malik, Rajesh Roshan, Viju Shah, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Naushad, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Jatin-Lalit and many others. She also recorded the Hindi versions of her own Tamil songs sung for A. R. Rahman.
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Currently, Chitra is one among the panel of judges in the singing reality shows at Kerala (Idea Star Singer) and Tamil Nadu (Airtel Super Singer Junior).
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.