I am a Tamilian based in Mumbai and thanks to AR Rahman I got the break in Paarthale Paravasam with the song "Nee Dan En Desiya Geetham".I hv been singing lots of Tamil jingles in Mumbai like the "Mortein" one on air currently...

Subsequently I have recorded some more songs the latest being " Atha Ponne " for Kadhal.com (MD-Bharadwaj)which shows an entirel;y different style of mine.

Tippu ,Karthik & Devan are damn good singers and do justice to the songs they get.A song becoming a commercial hit is pure luck.If the film does well, songs and the subsequently the singers get noticed. A classic example for me is "Pannikkatrae" in RUN which didn't get picturised even because it turned out to be over melodious.And today visuals play a very important role in a song's success.

As far as following earlier great singers ,I am of the opinion that each one is born with a distinct voice which may sound like someone else's.After singing my first Tamil song I realised that people in Chennai felt my voice resembles the legendary PBS.I hv grown up in Mumbai listening to only Hindi film songs of Rafi,Kishore,Hemant etc.I still lots of them in my shows. After listening to some tapes of PBS I feel he is GOD.You jus't can't copy the genius.Possibly his very soft rendering style was somewhere noticed in my singing.....

I am indeed very happy that my songs hv been liked by u all.Thanks once again & Happy listening!!!!.......Balram

email: shivlaya at vsnl.com