Sooraj Santhosh

Personal life

Sooraj Santhosh was born in Kollam and then moved to Trivandrum, attending Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School, Thiruvananthapuram. He pursued his B.Com at MG College and his M.Com at Mar Ivanious College. Santoth's family consists of his father, Santhosh Kumar, a senior administrative assistant in the forest department, his mother, Jayakumari, a teacher and younger brother Dheeraj, an engineer working at IBM.

Santoth married Anjali Panicker, an interior designer and classical dancer on September 6, 2016. They currently reside in Chennai.

Singing career

He won the 2004 School Youth Festival and 2004–2005 Kerala State Higher Secondary Youth Festival. He represented Kerala University in the South Zone Inter-University Youth Festival and was declared the winner three years in a row – 2009, 2010 and 2011, and participated in the National Inter University Youth Festival. In 2009 he shifted his base from Trivandrum to Chennai. He says that if it was not for his guru, professional flautist and Carnatic musician Kudamaloor Janardanan, he wouldn't have understood music in this depth. Santoth accompanied Kudamaloor Janardhanan for a fusion ensemble at the Kovalam Lit Fest (2010) (he was the only singer in the group). He is also a vocalist with Ashram Oriental Rock, a seven-member Indo-Austrian band, and went on a European tour with them in 2011.

Masala Coffee

Sooraj Santhosh is the co-founder and lead vocalist of Masala Coffee, which made its debut on Kappa TV’s Music Mojo. The band composed the soundtrack for the Tamil movie, Uriyadi, co-produced by Nalan Kumarasamy. They composed the title track and featured in a promo video for the Malayalam movie, Hello Namasthe. Masala Coffee performed at the RAAG 'N' ROCK Indie Music Festival at Al Nasr Leisureland, Dubai, on September 11, 2015, releasing their first music video titled 'Aalayaal Tharam Venam', in 2016.

His first song ′Inka Etho′ composed by G.V Prakash for the Telugu thriller Darling won him the Mirchi Music Awards South conducted by Radio Mirchi for the Best Upcoming Singer in Telugu (2010). "A Special program on the Mirchi Music Awards hosted to felicitate all the singers and musicians of South India" Sooraj made his debut in Malayalam with the song ′Ee Ramayanakkootil′ in the film Second Show. Music was composed by Nikhil Rajan starring Dulquar Salman. He sang the song ′Iniyum Nin Mounamenthe′ for the film KQ for the music composition of Stephen Devassy. He has also recorded for music director Ratheesh Vegha for the movies Lokpal, Ladies & Gentleman and Uthup Kizhakkemala.

Santoth made his entry into the Tamil film industry by singing ′Uyirin Suvaril′ and ′Vegam vegam′ in the movie Sridhar (2012)for which music was composed by Rahul Raj. He got his break with a duet song ′Yamma Yamma′ in All in All Azhagu Raja (2013) with Shreya Ghoshal, music composed by S. Thaman. ′Othakadai othakadai′ and ′Yaelley Yaelley′ from the film Pandiya Naadu (2013) composed by D. Imman are other Tamil songs. His recent song ′Madai Thirandhathu′ was for music director M M Sreelekha in the film Kaadhal Solla Aasai.

He has been nominated in the category of Best Upcoming Vocalist (Male)in Malayalam (2013) by Music Mirchi Awards, for his rendition of the song 'Iniyum Nin Mounam' for the movie KQ.

He won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song "Thaniye Mizhikal" from the film Guppy. He also won the Janbhumi film awards 2017 and SIIMA 2017.

Awards

Kerala State Film Awards

2016: Best Male Playback Singer - 'Thaniye Mizhikal', Guppy

Other Awards

2010: Mirchi Music Awards South, Best Upcoming Singer (Telugu) - 'Inka Etho', Darling

2017: Janmabhumi Film Awards, Best Playback Singer - 'Thaniye Mizhikal', Guppy

2017: SIIMA, Best Playback Singer (Malayalam)- 'Thaniye Mizhikal', Guppy

International concerts