National Award-winning playback singer Vani Jairam, who was honoured with the Padma Bhushan this Republic Day, passed away on Saturday at her house in Nungambakkam, in Chennai. She was 78 years old.
The cause of her death is still unknown. Some media reports though said that she had an injury on her forehead.
Break in 1971
Born as a Kalivani, Vani Jairam hailed from a family of classically trained musicians. She was born to Duraisamy Iyengar and Padmavathi. She became a playback singer in 1971 and went on to sing for over five decades. She sang in over 19 languages and won National Film Awards and state government awards.
Vani Jairam’s big break came with Guddi in 1971. Vani Jairam recently completed 50 years as a professional singer and had recorded more than 10,000 songs.
Body of work
She worked with many legendary composers across various industries, including MS Vishwanathan, KV Mahadevan, Chakravarthy, Ilaiyaraaja, RD Burman, OP Nayyar, Madan Mohan and Sathyam, among others.
She has a number of songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Tulu and Oriya to her credit. She won National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer thrice, apart from state awards from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, and Odisha.