Born on November 7, 1980 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Karthik is a famous playback singer. He is hugely popular and respected in Tamil music industry. His talent and subsequent acknowledgement of it by the great artists at young age of 28 is truly fascinating. His musical journey started at an early age. He was introduced to the art of Carnatic music and soon enough he started showing his amazing talent. His passion for music kept on increasing day by day. His first brush with fame took place during his college days when he used to sing for his college band and was a regular participant in IIT Madras Fest ‘Sarang’.

A chance meeting with famous singer Srinivas inspired Karthik further to take singing seriously. His journey is quite eventful as well as memorable. As luck would have it, he got a call from A R Rahman who needed a fresh voice. He initially sang in chorus and as a backing vocalist. Rahman quickly identified his talent and gave him a chance in the Tamil movie ‘Star’. The song ‘Nendhukittaen’ proved to be a hit and since then Karthik has never looked back. His unquestionable talent can be understood from the fact that he has sung for many reputed composers like A. R. Rahman, Jeyaraj, Ilayaraaja and Yuvan Shankar Raja. Tamil film industry has definitely been richer with the arrival of this young talent.

Karthik has sung songs in many languages like Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. Karthik has won several awards like Filmfare Best Male Playback Award in Tamil as well as Telugu languages. He has also won Nandi Award for Best Male Playback Singer and CineMAA Best Male Playback Award. These awards are true reflection of his multifaceted talent and increasing popularity.

The importance of singers in the context of a movie cannot be emphasized further. Indian movies thrive on songs. Not only Hindi movies but take any regional movie, they all have some song and dance sequence. Singers are supposed to be the heart of soul-stirring songs. Many people will say, it is the brilliance of the music composer that gave birth to the songs but the truth is whatever is the composition or lyrics, singers are the ones that provide a new life to mere words. He makes the song come alive. It is the quality of the singer who makes us remember or hum those songs that stay with us for a long time. Songs are not just mere words. It is also a sum total of emotions attached with a particular song. Singers are known to move audience with his singing ability.

Tamil film industry is no exception. Several top notch singers have made a mark for themselves in high quality Tamil film industry. Some of the big names in Tamil music industry have sung in various other languages including Hindi, Kannada and Telegu. Names like SP Balasubramanium and Hariharan are not unknown to Hindi fraternity. These two have given us wonderful hits in many languages. Other famous singers include names like Jayachandran, KK, Karthik, Sreenivas, Mano, KJ Yesudas, Madhu Balakrishnan etc. Yesudas has been a legend in his own rights. Hariharan is also an acclaimed ghazal singer. Talking about female singers, Chitra, P Susheela, Mahalaxmi Iyer, S Janaki have attained tremendous popularity over the years. Various Hindi singers have also sung for Tamil movies.