vasundhara das biography

Vasundhara Das

Shot during her performance at Yahoo! Bangalore.
Background information
Born 1977
Bengaluru, India.
Genres Hindustani Classical and Western music.
Occupations Actress, singer.
Instruments Guitar.
Years active 1999–present.
Associated acts Arya, World Music band, with Roberto Narain on drums.
Vasundhara Das (Tamil: வசுந்தரா தாஸ், Kannada: ವಸುಂಧರಾ ದಾಸ್) (born 1977) is an Indian actress and singer.
Early life
Vasundhara Das was born in a Hebbar Iyengar family from Bangalore. She studied at Cluny Convent High School, Bangalore, and Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, graduating in Economics and Mathematics.

She began training in Hindustani Classical music at the age of six. She used to run away from home to avoid taking music lessons. In her college days she was part of an all-girl band. She can play some Flamenco strums on her guitar.

She speaks Tamil, Kannada, Hindi and English.[1]
Career
Actor
Vasundhara began acting with the Kamal Hasan film Hey Ram (1999) and started her playback singing career with A. R. Rahman's Tamil film Mudhalvan. She was considered for the role of heroine by Mani Ratnam in his movie Alaipayuthey opposite R. Madhavan. She played heroine alongside the veteran actor Mohanlal in the Malayalam movie Ravanaprabhu, the female lead role opposite Ajith in the Tamil movie Citizen, and heroine opposite Dharshan Tugdeep in the Kannada movie Lankesh Pathrike. She also appeared in the Hindi T.V. serial Rab Ne Banadi Jodi.

Singer
She moved her base from Bangalore to Mumbai[2] and founded a musical band named Arya with Roberto Narain. The band comprises musicians from various backgrounds in world music ranging from Hindustani and Carnatic classical music to Jazz, Latin, rock and pop. Roberto Narain plays the drums and Vasundhara provides Western and Indian vocals. Arya’s music can be broadly classified as World Music. Arya’s first performance was at the prestigious festival La Mar de Musicas in Spain in 2003. The band toured the United States in September 2004.

Her breakthrough in films came in the 2001 film Aks with songs like Rabba Rabba for which she was nominated for the 2002 Filmfare Best Female Playback Award.

She has sung one song pattu viral thottu vittadhaal for maestro Ilaiyaraaja in the Tamil movie Dhanush directed by A.M. Gurumani. She has sung an English song in the Hindi film Lagaan for the British character played by Rachel Shelley. Her most famous Hindi song is It's the time to Disco in the film Kal Ho Na Ho sung for Preity Zinta . She is also well-known for the song kattipudi kattipudi da in the movie Kushi. She often sings for the actress Preity Zinta among others.

She has recorded her own album of non-film songs. She has sung in French,