Anuradha Bhat

Early life and background

Anuradha Bhat was born to Mr. Srikrishna Bhat and Mrs. Gayathri Srikrishna Bhat in Mangalore, Karnataka. Anuradha's parents are ardent music lovers. Her younger sister Anupama Bhat is a popular TV anchor/actor.

Anuradha Bhat received her education from Carmel English School, St. Ann's Girls' High School, Canara College, MSNM Besant Institute of PG Studies and passed out her B.Sc. and MBA with flying colours. She then got placed in the HR department of a renowned multinational company in Bangalore. But due to the immense love for music, she decided to quit her job and devote all her time to music, thus, enhance her musical knowledge and abilities.

Schooling and fine arts went hand in hand for Anuradha. She received training for Bharathnatyam from Mrs. Kamala Bhat and completed her Proficiency (Vidwath) in Bharathnatyam. She also got trained for Carnatic classical vocal, devotional and light music singing from Late. Sri M. Srinath Marathe. She learnt to play the instrument Veena from Mrs. Ranganayaki Varadarajan right from her early childhood days. All these activities helped her win a lot of prizes and awards at an early young age.

Career

Anuradha Bhat was first spotted by Music Director Gurukiran who judged her singing in a District Level - Open to all - Singing Competition that was held in Mangalore. She then gave several performances in Gurukiran's Concerts in India and abroad. Anuradha, during her college days, was selected to sing a few duet songs along with the legendary singer DR. S. P. Balasubramaniam through "Yedhe Thumbi Haaduvenu - Anveshane", a talent show conducted by ETV Kannada. She was then called for an audition by the renowned Music Director Sri Hamsalekha and was selected to sing the re-recording bits for the movie "Nenapirali". She did a lot of chorus & track singing for Hamsalekha where most of her songs got retained.

Playback singing

Anuradha Bhat emerged as a full-fledged playback singer through her song "Vasantha Vasantha" for the movie Meera Madhava Raghava under the music direction of Hamsalekha. She then got to sing for all other music directors in Sandalwood industry including V. Manohar, Sadhukokila, Rajesh Ramnath, Gurukiran, Manomurthy, Harikrishna, Arjun Janya and so on. She has sung for Music Directors even outside Sandalwood industry that include the Music Maestro Ilaiyaraja, M. M. Keeravani, Manisharma, Thaman and others. She became even more popular with her super hit songs like Marali Mareyagi (Savari), Jum Jum Maaya (Veera Madakari), Junglee Shivalingu (Junglee), Ellello oduva manase (Sidhlingu), Baite Baite (Varadanayaka), Srikrishna (Bhajarangi), Usiraaguve (Bahuparaak), Chanana Chanana (Ugramm), O Baby (Ricky), Appa I love you paa (Chowka) and many more. So far, Bhat has lent her voice for over 1000 Kannada movies and a few songs in Tulu, Tamil and Telugu.

Other projects and activities

Other than playback singing for movies, Anuradha Bhat has sung more than 5,000 songs in 14 different languages (Kannada, Tulu, Konkani, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Kodava, Badaga, Lambaani & English) for several other music projects like devotional, folk, bhaavageethe, pop albums, remix songs, children’s rhymes, Ad films/jingles and TV serials. "Chinnu - Kannada Rhymes - Vol. 1,2, & 3", all the 3 series rendered by Anuradha Bhat, got her fame even among the toddlers in India & abroad.

She has also dubbed for cartoon characters and has lent her voice in the narrations for several animated films, documentaries, jingles, radio/TV commercials and various other projects.

Anuradha Bhat has anchored a live show – "Belagu" for Doordarshan. She has given a lot of musical performances for various other TV channels, to name a few: ETV’s “Endhu Mareyadha Haadu”, Janasri TV’s “Nakshatra Manthana”, etc. She was also seen as a mentor in a musical reality show “Sapthaswara-3” on Kasturi TV. She also hosted the popular musical show "Aksharamaale" for Udaya TV (Sun Network).

Live performances

Anuradha Bhat started performing at the age of 6. She has given vocal performances in All India Radio, Doordarshan and other TV channels. Anuradha, a versatile singer, has given musical performances in India as well as Bahrain, Kuwait, Muscat, Qatar, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, Australia, Africa and the United States of America. She has performed along with legendary/popular singers like Dr. S.P.Balasubrahmaniam, Shankar Mahadevan, Suresh Wadekar, Udit Narayan, Vijay Prakash, Vijay Yesudas and many more. She has performed in Live Concerts of several popular Music Directors like Ilaiyaraja, M M Keeravani, Hamsalekha, Gurukiran, Manomurthy, V. Harikrishna, Arjun Janya and others.

She has given performances in prestigious events of several Zilla Utsava, Mysore Dasara, Vishwa Kannada Sammelana - Bellary, Singapore & London, Hampi Utsava, AKKA sammelana (San Jose, 2014), Navika (Raleigh, 2015), Bengaluru Ganesha Utsava (5 consecutive years from 2012) , etc.

Awards and nominations

Bhat has received several titles and honors like "Gaayanashri", "Diva" , etc., in appreciation by various other cultural associations and organizations.

Selected filmography

List of films for which Anuradha Bhat has recorded her voice for the soundtracks: