Shankar Mahadevan

Shankar Mahadevan was born on March 03, 1967 in Chembur, Mumbai into a Tamil speaking family. He learned Indian Classical Music and Carnatic music in his childhood and started playing Veena at the age of five.

Family

Shankar Mahadevan got married to Ms. Sangeetha Narayan and have 2 children named Shivam Mahadevan who is a Playback singer and Siddharth Mahadevan who ia a music composer in Bollywood. He is known for “Zinda” and the Rock Version of the title song “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’’

Music Career

Shankar Mahadevan learned Indian Classical Music and Carnatic music in his childhood and started playing Veena at the age of five. He went to OLPS High School in Chembur. He did his engineering in electronics from R.A.I.T (D Y Patil, Navi Mumbai). As of now he sings songs in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, and Carnatic.
Graduated in 1988 with a degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering from the Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology in Navi Mumbai, affiliated to Mumbai University, and was a software engineer for the company, Leading Edge. After working for Leading Edge Systems (now Trigyn Technologies Limited), Mahadevan ventured into music.
After entering in to music industry Mahadevan gave some to his composition to Chennai films.

Shankar Mahadevan also managed and got his first award as a playback singer in Chennai film music, collaborating with A. R. Rahman and winning a National Film Award for his song in “Kandukondain Kandukondain”

Shankar was noted for his first album ‘’Breathless’’ which was widely famous around the world.

Shankar- Ehsaan – Loy

Referred as Amar – Akbar – Anthony of Bollywood Industry. The trio had gave nearly 50 soundtracks to the industry and had also won many awards.

The Formation of Trio

Ehsaan was doing jingles and Loy was in Delhi before the union. Loy was writing for television then. The show Quiz Time was his first work and Siddharth Basu gave him his first break. Then he did Prannoy Roy’s The World This Week. A few more shows came along and he also did theatre and Shahrukh Khan’s Fauji. Loy had also worked as keyboardist with A. R. Rahman and Shankar had sung many famous tracks for him.

In 1989, Ehsaan met Loy, who was working for Ranjit Barot, an ad film composer. From then on, they joined together and composed several ad jingles together. Later, Ehsaan and Loy met Shankar when he was roped in by Ranjit Barot to sing for the Pepsi ad directed by Mukul Anand. Since then, they started to compose for ads as a Trio.

Notable works

Bebut work for this trio composers were Mukul Anand’s Dus. Director Anand wanted Ehsaan to compose the music for the film, but he insisted that Shankar and Loy work with him and Anand agreed. The film remained incomplete after Anand’s death, though the album was released later in 1999. After Dus, they had composed music for a couple of films like Rockford and Bhopal Express, but all of them went unnoticed. Their entry to mainstream cinema was with Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Mission Kashmir, which was a musical hit.

Shankar Mahadevan – Ehsaan – Loy rose to fame after their hit number from Dil Chahta Hain.

The turning point of their career as music directors though, was Dil Chahta Hai, which was the debut film of Farhan Akhtar as a director. Initially, A. R. Rahman was considered to do the music, but he backed out due to other assignments. Then the trio composed a title track for the film, which Farhan liked, and he signed them for the film. The film won wide critical acclaim and went on to attain cult status among audiences. This marked the beginning of the trio’s friendship with Farhan Akhtar and long-term association with Excel Entertainments.

Post Dil Chahta Hai, they composed music for several small budget films like Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai?, Nayee Padosan and Ek Aur Ek Gyarah, where all of them went unnoticed as all the movies were panned by the critics. They also had two big ventures, Honey Irani’s Armaan and Rohan Sippy’s Kuch Naa Kaho, which yet again, failed to impress both critics and audiences – though their work in Armaan was lauded by critics.

Kal Ho Naa Ho was the one of the best music of This Trio which bagged them with a National Award for best music direction of that year.

Other Projects done by them

Shankar Mahadevan – Ehsaan – Loy’s first International venture, the UK movie, West is West, was released on 18 February 2011. The music was well received by almost all the reviewers, despite the movie itself receiving reviews ranging from mixed to positive.

Other Notable work where trio made a mark of their crisp musical works and bagged their name as one of the most successful music group of Bollywood.
They have created very class and different kind of music and also sound for the Mainstream Bollywood movies.

Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par

Rock On!!

Luck By Chance

London Dreams

Wake Up Sid

My Name Is Khan

Houseful

Tere Bin Laden

We Are Family

Zindagi Na Milegi Doobara

Other Notable Works

Shankar Mahadevan – Ehsaan – Loy have been involved in several other works except for films which include international tours and concerts across the globe. Ehsaan, Loy and Farhad had formed the band Instant Karma, and they released redone versions of R D Burman and other composers over two albums in 2002.

They have also composed music for several jingles, signature tunes for corporates including Reliance and Aircel, and public awareness campaigns. In 2010, the troika wrote music for the first ever Bollywood musical, Zangoora.

In 2011, they composed the official anthem for ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, titled De Ghuma Ke

Which became quite popular among youths and cricket enthusiasts within days of its release.

In 2004, they performed for a concert organised by The Indian Express held in celebration of the democracy of India, which was also attended by Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar and other celebrities. They organised a concert at IFFI titled Salaam Boss (Salute to the Boss) in 2006 paying tribute to the legendary music composer R.D. Burman. Later in 2008, they performed for the Live Earth India Concert to help light homes with solar energy along with several other celebrities like Jon Bon Jovi.

Charity Work

The Trio Shankar Mahadevan – Ehsaan – Loy have been involved in many charitable activities. They composed the music for an album Haath Se Haath Mila as the part of an AIDS Awareness campaign launched by BBC World Service Trust In 2007,

They performed in Chennai for a concert organized by The Shakti Foundation – For the Physically Challenged to raise funds.

Organized by Farhan Akhtar, they lead the Rock concert for raising funds for a Pediatrics medical camp in Bihar in 2008. They also launched the You Know You Can Rock Harder G3 Challenge talent hunt in search of the most talented rock band in the country in the same year. They had performed for a fund raising concert for the NGO Alert India which fights against leprosy in 2009.

Collaboration

Dilbaro – Harshdeep Kaur, Vibha Saraf.(Raazi)
Gallan Goodiyan – Sukhwinder Singh, Yashita Sharma, Manish Tipu (Dil Dhadakne Do)
Kajra Re – Alisha Chinai, Javed Ali (Bunty Aur Babli)
Desi Girl – Sunidhi Chauhan, Shekhar Ravjani, Vishah Dadhlani (Dostana)
Indiawaale – KK, Neeti Mohan (Happy New Year)
Phir Bhi DIl Hain Hindustani – Udit Narayan, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Dominique Cerejo (Phir Bhi Dil Hain Hindustani)
Baby Wont You Tell Me – Shweta Mohan (Sahoo)
Aao Na – Sadhana Sargam (Kyun! Ho Gaya Na)
Koi Jaye To Le Aaye – Alka Yagnik, Shankar Mahadevan (Ghatak: Lethal)

Awards By the Trio (Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy)

Filmfare Awards – Bunty Aur Babli, Kal Ho Na Ho and 2 States.

International Indian Film Academy Awards – Kal Ho Naa Ho, Bunty Aur Babli, and My Name is Khan.

Star Screen Awards – Dil Chahta Hai, Bunty Aur Babli, and My Name Is Khan.

Filmfare R.D Burman Award for New Music Talent

MTV Immies Award -2004

National Award for best music direction – Kal Ho Na Ho

Years of Excellence at the Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards – Hard Rock Cafe, Mumbai