Hariharan is a world-renowned Indian singer who has sung a record 15,000 songs in 10 languages. His specialty is Indian classical singing and fusion music. He was awarded the Padma Shri in the year 2004 for his contribution in the field of music. ‘Shri Hanuman Chalisa’ sung by Hariharan has received more than 4 billion views on YouTube.
Hariharan was born on 3 April 1955 to classical musician H.A. S. Mani and Alamelu were born in Mani’s house. His full name is Hariharan Ananth Subramani. Hariharan lost his father when he was only 7 years old. His father, H.A. S. Mani, fondly called Chellamani, was a renowned musician. He groomed many Carnatic singers in Mumbai, where he died in his early 40s due to cardiac arrest in 1963.
After his schooling, Hariharan also pursued degrees in law and science. He received his initial education in music from his mother. His first guru i.e. his mother introduced him to Carnatic music. Hariharan’s mother, Alamelu Mani, has had a long career in Carnatic singing. Hariharan took training in Hindustani singing from Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan and mastered the art of singing ghazals.
He released many ghazal albums, prominent among which are Ghazal Ka Mausam, Aabshar-e-Ghazal, Gulfam, etc. All these albums became very popular. She received the Diva Award for Best Album of the Year in 1994 for the album Gulfam. His journey in Bollywood started with the song ‘Ajeeb Saneha’ for the Hindi film Gaman (1978).
Throughout his career, Hariharan sang a record 15,000 songs in 10 languages. Apart from Hindi, Hariharan has also sung songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Kannada, Marathi, Sinhala, Bhojpuri, Oriya, Bengali, Sanskrit, Gujarati and English, etc. He won the National Film Award for Best Playback Singer in 1998: “Mere Dushman” (Hindi), for Border, and the National Film Award for Best Playback Singer in 2009: “Jeeva Dangla Gungla Rangla” (Marathi), twice for Jogwa. Won. He was awarded the Padma Shri in the year 2004 for his contribution in the field of music.
