Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam (born 31 August 1981), also known by his initials A. D. K. or simply Dinesh Kanagaratnam, is a Sri Lankan R&B and hip hop artist and music producer who has composed tracks in

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

. He also often collaborates with music directors in

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood' ...

as a

playback singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not app ...

Early life and career

Dinesh was born in Badulla and raised in

Modara Modara ( si, මෝදර, translit=Mōdara; ta, முகத்துவாரம், translit=Mukattuvāram), also known as Mutwal ''(anglicised version)'', is a municipal ward of Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. The mouth of the river Kelani Gan ...

, Sri Lanka. He studied information technology (IT) in

Trichy Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India and started teaching IT courses in Sri Lanka. He began working with local musicians part-time to pursue his growing interest in music. In 2004, he was given a chance by Bathiya, an artist in Sri Lanka and started recording rap songs until he was discovered by

Vijay Antony Vijay Antony (born 24 July 1975) is an Indian music composer, playback singer, actor, film editor, lyricist, audio engineer, and filmmaker working predominantly in Tamil cinema. He made his debut as music composer in 2005. He is the first India ...

. He collaborated with him for the song "Aathichudi" for the soundtrack of the film ''

TN 07 AL 4777 ''TN-07 AL 4777'' is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language thriller drama film directed by A. Lakshmikanthan. The film stars Simran, Pasupathy, Ajmal Ameer, and Meenakshi. The film's soundtrack, composed by Vijay Antony was released on 12 December 2008. ...

'' (2008) in 2009 which is a remake of Surangani, a song from his first independent album, Tamizha Back in Sri Lanka, he did a cross-culture album in 2005 which includes songs in Tamil, Sinhala and English. His next throughout in cinema industry was "Magudi", which was his first collaboration with

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

for the

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...

-directed film '' Kadal'' (2013). He was featured along with

Anirudh Ravichander Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also known Mononymous person, mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian film scorer music composer music producer singer and instrumentalist who primarily works in Tamil films. He is the son of actor Ra ...

for the song "Mun Sellada" in the film '' Manithan'' (2016), composed by

Santhosh Narayanan Santhosh Narayanan is an Indian composer and musician in the Tamil film industry. Early life Santhosh Narayanan was born in Tiruchirappalli, India. He is the younger of two children. He was educated at RSK Higher Secondary School, Tiruchirappa ...

. Kanagaratnam and rapper Sri Rascol formed a record label called Rap Machines and have done other rap musics. He continued to work in Tamil and Telugu cinema, writing and performing English language rap for soundtracks, including the title track "Maayon" in '' Mersal'' (2017) composed by

, the song "Gala Gala" featured with Megha from

Race Gurram ''Race Gurram'' () is a 2014 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film directed by Surender Reddy and produced by Nallamalupu Srinivas under his banner Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions. The film stars Allu Arjun and Shruti Haasan while Shaa ...

composed by

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. Th ...

and also a background score (which had been deleted later) in

Nerkonda Paarvai ''Nerkonda Paarvai'' () is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language legal drama film directed by H. Vinoth. Produced by Boney Kapoor, it is a remake of the Hindi film ''Pink'' (2016). The film stars Ajith Kumar, Shraddha Srinath, Abhirami Venkatachalam and ...

. He also worked in '' 2.0'' (2018). Kanagaratnam has joined concert tours in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, India, Malaysia and Singapore. He is well known for his rap battles at every A. R. Rahman concert tours alongside

Lady Kash Kalaivani Nagaraj, known professionally as Lady Kash, is a rapper/songwriter from Singapore who started her solo career professionally in 2007. Rapping fluently in English and Tamil, Lady Kash has worked with music composers including A. R. Rahma ...

and

Blaaze Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Sheshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman (born 15 October 1975), professionally known as Blaaze (), is an Indian Tamil language playback singer and rapper in Indian cinema who specializes in writing and performing rap m ...

. In January 2019, Kanagaratnam performed with

Bathiya and Santhush Bathiya & Santhush ( si, භාතිය හා සන්තුෂ්), also known as BNS, are a Sri Lankan pop duo consisting of Bathiya Jayakody (born on December 22, 1976) and Santhush Weeraman (born on September 5, 1977), who met while ...

at ''Oba Nisa'' in Sri Lanka.

Discography

Independent tracks & album

* 2005 - Cross Culture *2009 - Nagara Vaytai, Kuruvi *2011 - Dhoomi Dhaala *2012 - '' Aaryan - Goka Pearu'', Kuruvi, Hollaback Muniamma, You Ate My Money *2015 - Uyir Poo *2016 – present; RAP MACHINES - AYM Tribute, Vellai Poove, Maayavi, Pudhiya Era, Hollaback Muaniamma 2 and others. *2017 - Yeanadi Penne -

IRAJ Iraj ( fa, ایرج - ʾīraj; Middle Persian, Pahlavi: ērič; from Avestan language, Avestan: 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 airiia, literally "Aryan") is the seventh Shah of the Pishdadian dynasty, depicted in the ''Shahnameh''. Based on Persian myth ...

Ft.

Krish Manoj Krish can refer to : * Krish, an alternate name for Krishna * Krish (singer) Krish is an Indian actor and singer who has worked on Tamil and Telugu films. He was introduced to the Tamil Cinema as a playback singer by the successful duos Gauth ...

& ADK - Melody By Chamath Sangeeth , ADK 155 Documentary Film, *2018 - Kannaley Kollathey *2019 - RAP MACHINES: Poraali Elvi ft ADK, 2.0 X Petta Mashup by Allan Preetham ft ADK

Playback singing

Television

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanagaratnam, Aaryan Dinesh Living people Sri Lankan Tamil musicians Sri Lankan rappers 21st-century Sri Lankan male singers 1981 births Bigg Boss (Tamil TV series) contestants