If you are a fan of 80s and 90s Tamil songs, then you are sure to remember the evergreen song Poda Poda Punnakku from the 1991 movie En Rasavin Manasile. The song was picturised on a group of rural village boys dancing in merriment. While the choreography and setting of the song is fixated in the minds of viewers, not many know who the singer is. You will be surprised to know that the song, picturised on young boys, was sung by a child artist, who grew up to become a popular singer. Poda Poda Punnakku was sung by Kalpana Raghavendar, when she was just 11 years old. This was actually her maiden project and she was introduced to the world of music through this song. Right from her first song, she impressed everyone; and over the last three decades, she has done playback singing for many Tamil as well as Telugu films.
Kalpana Raghavendar was raised in a musical household. Both her mother Sulochana and father TS Raghavendra are accomplished singers. Her father was a well-known playback singer, actor, and composer. Shekinah Shawn, her younger sister, is an opera singer.
In 1999, she made her debut as an adult professional playback singer with the song Mangala Gouriki from the Telugu movie Manoharam, which was composed by Mani Sharma. Many renowned composers and vocalists, including MS Viswanathan, Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman, KV Mahadevan, SP Balasubrahmanyam and KS Chithra collaborated with her. The audience is more familiar with her as a stage performer than a playback singer because she has around 3,000 stage performances under her belt worldwide.
Kalpana participated as a contestant in a music competition titled Star Singer season 5, broadcast by the Malayalam TV channel Asianet, also serving as judge for Super Singer Junior. She was a participant on the first season of Bigg Boss Telugu as well.
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