Uthara Unnikrishnan

Uthara Unnikrishnan is the daughter of Indian playback singer Unni Krishnan. She came to spotlight for winning National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer in 2015 for her rendition of the song ‘ Azhagu Azhagu is a Tamil Family entertainer, which starte >> Read More... ’ from Tamil film ‘ Saivam Click to look into! >> Read More... ’. She is the first Indian playback singer to record a song at the age of just seven and received the award when she was ten. She is thus the young recipient to get such honor in Indian playback singing. 

Uthara was born on June 11, 2004, to classical singer P. Unni Krishnan and Bharatanatyam dancer Priya Unnikrishnan. Unni too has received multiple awards for his playback in Indian cinema. It is said that it was G. V. Prakash who made her sing her first song ‘Azhagu’ (that was based on Raga Darbari Kanada). The song was picturised on a child actor Sara Arjun Sara Arjun is a cute child actress in India. She h >> Read More... in the film. 

Uthara’s move to playback singing in cinema was by a chance. She visited G V Prakash Kumar’s wife with her mother Priya Unnikrishnan and had sung few lines in Bommai Kolu ceremony during Navaratri festival. A few months later G V Prakash asked her to sing ‘Azhagu’ song for the movie. She recorded the song in two days. While her Amma (mother) accompanied her on the first day, her Appa (father) was seen in the recording studio on the second day. The daughter of Unni has begun learning Carnatic music at the age of six from Sudha Raja Sudha Raja is an esteemed musician and musicologis >> Read More... . She is also keen to learn Western Classical music. She likes going to music class. Her appa always gives her advice to practice a hundred times if she does not get any sangathi. Her Appa’s advice helped her a lot in getting into the mood of the song’ Azhagu’ perfectly. 

Uthara’s dream is to gain recognition like her Appa. She is so fond of Unni’s voice and recalls that Unni’s rendition of ‘Narumugaye’ and ‘Uyirum Neeye’ is always special to her. Lyricist NA Muthukumar, who penned the lyrics for the song ‘Azhagu’ for film ‘Saivam’, received the National Film Award along with Uhtara. Muthukumar recalls that the child singer Uthara gave life to his lyrics and had sung the song so beautifully that she was indeed eligible for National Award. Uthara’s father P.Unnikrishnan felt that seeing her win the National award at a young age gave him great satisfaction as a singer.