Shakthisree Gopalan

Biography

Shakthisree Gopalan is an Indian vocalist, composer, songwriter and performer, famous for her collaborations with the music composers like A.R. Rahman. Aside from the film music, she is a regular in the independent music scene, performing with various bands over the years dabbling in Pop, R'n'B, trip-hop and jazz.

Early life and education

Shakthisree Gopalan was brought up in Kochi, Kerala. She did her schooling in Rajagiri Public School, Kalamassery. She moved to Chennai after her school and pursued her degree in architecture at the Anna University's School of Architecture and Planning.
She was trained in Carnatic music for 13 years. During her 11th standard, SS Music conducted Voice Hunt 1. Since she was under 18, it ended with the auditions. Eventually in 2008, she won the second season of SS Music's Voice Hunt. She was first auditioned in November 2008 and got the opportunity to sing her debut song for the film TN 07 AL 4777.

2008–2012: Career beginnings and playback debut

At the age of 13, Shakthisree Gopalan was already trained in the field of Carnatic music and rock. After having won the "SS Music Voice Hunt " title in the year 2008, Gopalan debuted into film playback in the same year in Vijay Antony's TN 07 AL 4777. She subsequently went on to record a number of songs for films such as Rajadhi Raja, Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam and Naan. She was placed third in the Chennai Live's Band hunt. In the year 2014, she performed in MCC (Madras Christian College) cultural fest at Deepwoods and National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli cultural fest Festember, SASTRA University cultural fest Kuruksastra'14, VIT University cultural fest Riviera 14 and Madras Institute of Technology cultural fest Mitafest 15.
"Off the Record" consists of Vikram Vivekanand (Guitar), Satish Narayanan (Bass) and Tapas Naresh/Vinay Ramakrishnan (Drums).

2012–2016: Mainstream success

Shakthisree met A.R. Rahman when she got an assignment to design his music school, KM Music Conservatory. It was around that time she shared the music she had composed with him and got to sing 'Nenjukkulle' for the movie Kadal, which would catapult her into the spotlight. Although it was the first song of the duo's now long-lived collaboration, the eponymous title track for the composer's Bollywood film, Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) which they recorded after "Nenjukkulle", would release before it.
The string of major successes that followed includes her works on Raja Rani, Madras, Anegan, Kaaki Sattai, Kanchana 2 among others. Not one to be confined to a single language, she also began her foray into the Telugu and Malayalam playback industries, finding just as much success in dubbed versions of Raja Rani and Kanchana 2, and Charlie.

2016–present: Song releases

She also released 'By Your Side' in December 2016, in which she collaborated with Hari Dafusia, a Toronto-based keyboardist-producer, and Nigel Roopnarine, a bass player. Apart from playback singing for movies, she also collaborated with Prashanth and released an indie single called Begin in November 2017.
She recorded the song Aga Naga for A. R. Rahman in the film Ponniyin Selvan, which was first used as a short background song in the first part of the movie. The song gained immense popularity among the audiences upon release of the first part. The entire song was then released as part of the main soundtrack of the second part.

2024–present: Debut as a composer

She is set to debut as a music composer in January 2024 for the film The Test directed by S. Sashikanth and starring Madhavan, Nayanthara, Siddharth, and Meera Jasmine. Music composer A. R. Rahman announced her debut as music director on Twitter on 4 May 2023.