Happy Birthday Hariharan: 10 Lesser-known Facts About the Musician

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARIHARAN: If your playlist is filled with songs like Hum Saath Saath Hain, Yeh Lamhe Yeh Pal, O Hansini and Sirf Tum, then you must be familiar with the name Hariharan. This versatile musician is known for his soulful voice. He has immensely contributed to the Indian music industry for over four decades.

Born Hariharan Anantha Subramani. themusic maestro started his career as a ghazal singer in the late 1970s. Soon, he started taking on Bollywood projects. He’s credited with some evergreen songs like Tu Hi Re (Bombay in1995), Baahon Ke Darmiya (Khamoshi: The Musical in1996), Ek Duje Ke Vaaste (Dil To Pagal Hai in 1997), etc.

Hariharan has worked in more than 5 Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and Marathi.

On his birthday, let’s visit some little-known pages of his life:

1. Hariharan’s father, Anantha Subramani Iyer, was a well-known musician, and his mother, Alamelu, was a trained classical singer. His parents encouraged him to pursue music from a very young age.
2. He became popular after winning a music show named All India Sur Singer Competition in 1977. After listening to his voice, late music director Jaidev gave him the opportunity to sing in his movie Gaman (1978).
3. Hariharan’s Bollywood breakthrough came with the song Ai Rama from the movie Rangeela (1995), which was composed by AR Rahman. The song was a huge hit and helped him establish himself as a leading playback singer in the industry.
4. For his contributions to Indian music, Hariharan has been awarded with Padma Shri in 2004. He has also won various other awards like National Film Awards, Filmfare Awards, IIFA awards, and Global Indian Music Academy Awards.
5. Colonial Cousins is the name of the two-piece band that Hariharan and Lesle Lewis started in 1996. The dynamic team has together released some outstanding music in numerous languages.
6. Some of Hariharan’s favourite musicians include AR Rahman, Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Mehndi Hassan.
7. The singer also loves to travel and read. His favorites include South-Indian and Italian cuisine.
8. Hariharan is involved in various philanthropic activities. He has also performed at numerous charity concerts to raise funds for causes such as cancer and AIDS.
9. Apart from music, he is also an avid golfer and has participated in several golf tournaments.
10. Hariharan is married to Lalitha, a playback singer and music composer. They have two sons – Karan and Akshay.

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