1. Vani Jairam is fondly referred to as the "Meera of modern India" Vani's career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades.
41 Facts About Vani Jairam
1. 2.
Vani Jairam did playback for over one thousand Indian movies recording over 20,000 songs.
3.
Vani Jairam has sung in several Indian languages languages including Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Assamese, Tulu, Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Marwari, Urdu, Konkani, Punjabi and Bengali languages.
4.
Vani Jairam is the youngest artist to be awarded the "Sangeet Peet Samman".
5.
Vani Jairam won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer three times and has won State Government awards from the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
6.
Vani Jairam was well versed in various forms of music, including Carnatic, Hindustani, thumri, ghazal and bhajan.
7.
Vani Jairam was born as Kalaivani in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, in a classically trained musicians family, as a fifth daughter in a family of six daughters and three sons.
8.
Vani Jairam was glued to the Radio Ceylon channel and was attracted to Hindi film songs to the extent that she used to memorize and reproduce the entire orchestration of the songs that used to repeatedly play on the Radio.
9.
Vani Jairam did her schooling at Lady Sivasamy High School, Chennai.
10.
Vani Jairam then graduated from the Queen Mary's College, Chennai.
11.
Post her studies, Vani Jairam was employed with the State Bank of India, Madras, and later in 1967, she was transferred to the Hyderabad branch.
12.
Vani Jairam learned the nuances of various vocal forms such as Thumri, Ghazal and Bhajan under Khan's tutelage and gave her first public concert in 1969.
13.
Vani Jairam sang with the veteran vocalist Agra Charan Pt.
14.
Vani Jairam recalled that it was a challenging song and "he trusted me with it".
15.
Vani Jairam won her first Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for the song "Naane Naana" composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the film Azhage Unnai Aarathikkiren.
16.
Vani Jairam recorded thousands of Tamil songs both in solo and duet formats.
17.
Vani Jairam recorded her first Telugu song for the film Abhimanavanthulu.
18.
Vani Jairam was awarded the Andhra Pradesh government's Nandi Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the same songs.
19.
Later in 1990, the same team produced the film Swathi Kiranam which was again musically noted; all the songs sung by Vani Jairam were received well.
20.
Vani Jairam received her third National Film Award for the film.
21.
Vani Jairam recorded most of the dubbed songs from Tamil composed by Ilaiyaraaja.
22.
Vani Jairam toured the entire Maharashtra state, accompanying her mentor, Desai, and taught many Marathi songs to school children.
23.
Vani Jairam sang the duet song Maine Tumhe Paa Liya with Rafi composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal in Jurm Aur Sazaa, and a duet with Manna Dey in Parinay composed by Jaidev and the solo song Pee Kahan in Solva Sawan by Jaidev.
24.
Vani Jairam recorded as many as 12 bhajans for the film Meera which became highly popular.
25.
Vani Jairam made her Malayalam debut in 1973 by recording the solo song "Sourayudhathil Vidarnnoru" composed by Salil Chowdhary for the film Swapnam.
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The song became hugely popular, giving good credibility to Vani Jairam and gave her career a breakthrough.
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Vani Jairam went on to record over 600 songs in Malayalam cinema.
28.
Vani Jairam recorded two songs in the film, which was immediately followed by her breakthrough song "Bhaavavemba Hoovu Arali" from the film Upasane.
29.
The combination of Puttanna Kanagal - Vijaya Bhaskar - Vani Jairam produced many popular songs backed by strong female-centric themes.
30.
Vani Jairam recorded many popular songs in the 1980s with the legendary actor-singer Dr Rajkumar.
31.
Vani Jairam sang in many Odia films of 1970's and 1980's and became household name in Odisha.
32.
Vani Jairam recorded most songs with the films of music composer Prafulla Kar as well as in the films of Odia and Kannada composer Upendra Kumar.
33.
Besides Hindi and South Indian languages, Vani Jairam has made recordings in Gujarati, Marathi, Marwari, Haryanvi, Bengali, Odia, English, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Badaga, Urdu, Sanskrit, Punjabi and Tulu 19 languages totally.
34.
Vani Jairam has been awarded many prestigious awards, among them Best Female Playback Singer for the states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Odisha.
35.
Vani Jairam recorded "Gita Govindam" composed by Prafulla Kar with Odissi Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra playing the Pakhawaj.
36.
Vani Jairam released "Murugan Songs" with songs written by her with music composed by her.
37.
Vani Jairam's husband Jairam was a student of Pandit Ravi Shankar The couple did not have children.
38.
Vani Jairam made her debut in Hindi film "Guddi", from which 'Bole re papihara' was a very big hit all over India.
39.
Vani Jairam specially recognised for unique voice and versality in singing all languages and all types of songs as the own language people.
40.
Vani Jairam died following a fall on 4 February 2023, at the age of 77.
41.
On 28 May 2014, Vani Jairam was felicitated in Bhubaneshwar for her contribution to Odia cinema.