Sreerama Chandra Mynampati

Sreerama Chandra Mynampati is a professional singer and 2010 Indian Idol winner from Hyderabad who debuted his playback career in the Telugu film industry.^[1][2] Sreeram won the fifth season of music reality show Indian Idol 5 and was awarded by one of the most prominent figures in the history of Indian cinema, Amitabh Bachchan.^[3][4] In 2013, he made his Telugu cinema acting debut with the film Sri Jagadguru Aadi Sankara. He has altogether played as the lead actor in 2 Tollywood movies Prema Geema Jantha Nai and Sri Jagadguru Adi Shankara. He acted with Salman Khan for an advertisement with Suzuki.^[5]

He is the first person from South India to win the Indian Idol title. His victory on the show has landed him Rs. 5 million cash, a one-year contract with Sony Music Entertainment, a Tata Winger car and, for the first time, a chance to sing a song in a Yash Raj Films project.^[3] The State Government of Andhra Pradesh honored him with the Lata Mangeshkar Award along with a cash award of Rs. 1 lakh.^[6]

Personal life

Sreeramachandra was born on 19 January 1986 in Addanki, a town in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, into a Telugu speaking Brahmin family. His father is a High Court advocate while his mother is a housewife.^[1] In spite of a non-musical background, Sreerama Chandra had a passion towards singing and started singing in his school days from Sri N.Ch.Parthasarathy and during college days.

He did his schooling at St. Andrews School, Bowenpally, Secunderabad and graduated (B.Tech) from the Royal Institute of Technology and Science (RITS). He learnt music at Sri Bhakta Ramadasu Govt. College Of Music And Dance, Secunderabad from Smt.Bhaskara Haripriya Garu (One of the Hyderabad Sisters – The Singing Divine Duo).

He currently lives in Hyderabad.

Career

Sreeramachandra started singing during his school days, but started playback singing at the age of 17.^[7] He has completed his fifth year of his Certificate course in Carnatic vocal at Sri Bhakta Ramadasa Music College, Marredpally, Secunderabad. After participating in ETV's Sye, a singing reality show, Telugu film music director Mickey J Meyer spotted Sreeram's talent and had him sing "Chirugalithone Adiga" for a movie called Notebook.^[1] He got his first break in singing in the track 'Nammalo Ledo' and 'Thidathara Kodathara' tracks for the critically acclaimed 2008 Telugu comedy film Ashta Chamma.

The Indian Idol 5 win led Sreeram to enter Bollywood through Yash Raj Films with his first 2 Songs from Mere Brother Ki Dulhan namely “Madhubala” & “Ishq Risk”, the Club Mix Version. His first blockbuster hit song was with Himesh Reshamiya for the Movie Khiladi 786. The song “Balma” threw a completely different light on his vocal skills as it challenged and popularized Sreeram in Bollywood. Thereon Sreeram went on to singing various hit songs in Bollywood such as “Subhanallah” from Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and over 200 songs in 7 other languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Gujrati, Singhalese, Kannada & English. One of the greatest milestones of Sreeram's journey has been singing “Rehnuma”, the Indian Idol winning song, which became a part of the soundtrack for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Sreeram also had the opportunity to showcase his other personal passions; both acting and dancing through his Telugu movies “Prema Geema Jaanta Nai” and “Sri Jagadguru Aadi Sankara”.

Sreeram also worked on an advertising campaign with Hero MotoCorp that featured Salman Khan.^[8]

He worked with some prominent music directors such as Mani Sharma, Kalyani Malik and Ramana Gogula. Sreeram performed the hit track "Tum Mile", to which music director Pritam commented that Sreeram was ready to start playback singing immediately. Sreeram has recorded a duet with Shreya Ghoshal for a latest Telugu movie. This song was offered to him by one of the judges of Indian Idol 5 and music director Salim Merchant. Sreeram Chandra learnt Carnatic music in Sree Bhakta Ramadasa Music College; he is the disciple of Smt.Bhaskara Haripriya Garu (One of the Hyderabad Sisters – The Singing Divine Duo).^[9]

Sreeram released his debut Hindi album Rehnuma in 2010 and said it is a tribute to his loved ones.^[10]

Sreeram has started recording his new Music album called Crazy Love.^[11]

Currently, he is singing for an ETV's musical show called Swarabhishekam. It is telecast between 6-9 PM on Sundays.

Competitions

• Finalist and 1st Runner-up of Jo Jeeta Wohi Super Star 2 in 2012
• Title Winner of Indian Idol-5 Season 5 by Sony Entertainment Television.^[9] in 2010 (19 March to 15 August 2010).
• Title Winner of Okkare conducted by ETV in 2008 (June–December).
• Reached Top 18 of Amul STAR Voice of India conducted in the year 2007 March.
• Finalist in Sye Singer’s Challenge conducted in 2006-07, by ETV.
• Qualified for Delhi Finals Sangam Kala Group(Delhi), conducted in November 2006, by Hero Honda.
• Winner of radio competition Voice of Andhra, Was conducted in the year 2005-06 by FM radio.
• Runner-up in Relax songs competition conducted by Ramana Gogula in 2005.
• Winner of Ananda Ragam Contest conducted by the team from Anand in 2004.

Achievements and performances

• He started performing shows at the age of 8 and has done more than 200 stage shows including classical and filmy music.
• He performed shows with reputed singers like Sri. Mano, Sri. Malathi, Sri. Sunitha. He has done corporate shows with Limca.^[12]
• He has given programmes with Koti, M. M. Keeravani (M. M. Kreem), Madhavpeddi Suresh, Vandemataram Srinivas, Ghantadi Krishna and many more music directors.
• He sang three songs in Sabari Gireesha Saranam an audio CD composed by Mantha Srinivas.
• He has given programmes abroad, at Singapore, Dubai, London.
• His first performance in his hometown Hyderabad was on 25 September 2010.
• He performed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games New Delhi closing ceremony along with great singers like Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Goshal, Sunidhi Chauhan etc.
• Magnum opus The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader^[13] which is set to release in 3D, in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu alongside the English-language version, now has an added attraction for viewers. The film will have a song recorded by Sreeram, "Rehnuma," (originally recorded for his debut album), playing over the end credits. For the singer, this alliance marks a big achievement as he is not just the only artist from Asia collaborating with Fox but is also the first-ever Hyderabadi to have a song featured in a Hollywood film.

Awards

• Sreerama won the prestigious Lata Mangeshkar Award from Andhra Pradesh Government.^[14]
• He was awarded the P.B. Sreenivas Award on 19 October by singer Shri P. B. Sreenivas at Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad, A.P.
• Sreerama received the Ghantasala Award on 4 December.
• He won the Indian Idol 5 contest on 15 August 2010
• In the non-film music category of GIMA 2011 Indian Idol 5 winner Sreeram won best music debut for Rehnuma
• He was awarded Dainik Prayukti Sammaan 2017 on 31 March 2017 at Constitution Club of India, Delhi.^[15]

Discography

Filmography

As actor

• Sri Jagadguru Aadi Sankara – 2013
• Prema Geema Jaantha Nai – 2013

References

External links

• Interview with Sreerama Chandra on Tharanga on 5 December 2013