B. R. Chaya

Biography

Bengaluru Ramamurthy Chaya, known as B. R. Chaya, is an Indian, Kannada playback singer, stage performer and a popular Sugama Sangeetha singer from Karnataka. She has performed pop, folk, devotional and bhavageethe (light music). She has more than 10000 songs to her credit. She is recipient of Rajyotsava Prashasti from the State Government of Karnataka and also Karnataka State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer .

Early days and debut

Chaya was born to Ramamurthy and Janaki. she worked as a watch mechanic for a few years in HMT after doing a course in horology at RV College, and later represented Karnataka at a Doordarshan national competition in Madras. She made her debut with the Tamil-language film Jothi (1983) and her Kannada debut with Puttanna Kanagal's Amrutha Ghalige (1984).
Chaya, who was from the Indian state of Karnataka, developed an interest in music during childhood. She was described as a child prodigy because of her extensive knowledge of music.
Chaya was initially noticed by the south Indian musical maestro Ilaiyaraaja who made her sing quite a few tracks for his Tamil and Telugu films. But she got a big break in her first Kannada film recording with music director Vijaya Bhaskar for the film Amrutha Ghalige. The song "Hindustanavu Endoo Mareyada" for this film became a huge hit and Chaya got instant recognition and accolades. She refers to Vijaya Bhaskar as her Guru.
Chaya continued to sing many popular songs in films and also branched out to sing hundreds of songs for private albums. She recorded many duet songs with all the veterans of her time like M. Balamurali Krishna, P. B. Sreenivas, K. J. Yesudas and S. P. Balasubramanyam. She worked under many music composers like Rajan-Nagendra, Vijaya Bhaskar, Upendra Kumar, M. Ranga Rao, Hamsalekha, V. Manohar, C.Ashwath, H.K.Narayan among others.
In the latter part of her career, she has performed for the Kannada Associations of United States of America (all most all major cities of USA), Australia, New Zealand, Baharain, Dubai, Singapore on their invitations.
She is currently a judge on Gaana Chandana and has been doing concerts all over the world.
Chaya is the first singer to receive the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Ruthumana samputadi" from the movie "Kaadina Benki" in 1988.

Awards and recognitions

2010 – Karnataka Rajyotsava Prashasti
1988 – Karnataka State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Song: Ruthumana samputadi from Kaadina Benki
1995 – Karnataka State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Song: Ibbani tabbida ileyali from Rashmi