Ganga Sitharasu
Ganga Sitharasu is an Indian playback singer who has worked in the Indian film industry. Ganga worked extensively with A. R. Rahman during the late 1990s and early 2000s, while also regularly collaborating with M. M. Keeravani. The child of professors A. Krishnan and Vatsala Krishnan, Ganga learnt carnatic music as a child and became interested in singing with the encouragement of her guru Sri Haripad K. P. N. Pillai and Lakshmi, a music teacher at her school. After winning several inter-school competitions for carnatic and light music, Ganga was encouraged by her friends to try her luck in the film industry as a playback singer. In June 1992, she went to Chennai with her father and met composer M. M. Keeravani, who gave her the first opportunity to make a voice recording, while dubbing a movie titled Aanenna Pennenna from Telugu to Tamil. In the year 1993, she completed her graduation in B. A. English Literature and then also achieved a Diploma in Carnatic Music, Sangeetha Ratna, from the Music Academy in 1995. Later she joined A. R. Rahman’s chorus and initially worked in a group singing harmonies, before being given individual tracks. She worked as a part of several of Rahman's films in the chorus from Pudhiya Mannargal (1993) to Lagaan (2001). Her first lead song was released in 1994 which was in Malayalam movie, Pakshe, where she had sung a duet with K. J. Yesudas with music composed by Johnson. Her first Tamil solo song was in 1997 for the film, Ponmanam with music by S. A. Rajkumar. In 2001, she got her first Telugu opportunity again from Keeravani and sung four songs in the movie Akasa Veedhilo. He also later introduced her to the Kannada field in the film, Deepavali. For her work, she has been awarded as the best female singer by Tamilnadu Cinema Kalai Manram twice; first in 2002 for the film Samuthiram and then in 2005 for the film Devathaiyai Kanden. She later also received acclaim for her work with Mani Sharma, and notably sang the "Mambalam" song from Pokkiri (2007). Ganga is married to V. Sitharasu, a leading photographer in the Tamil film industry. She is blessed with two male children
