Kasturi Shankar ( kn, ಕಸ್ತೂರಿ ಶಂಕರ್) is an Indian singer who sings mainly in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

language. She has recorded few films songs in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

and

Tulu Tulu may refer to: People *Derartu Tulu (born 1972), Ethiopian long-distance runner *Walid Yacoubou (born 1997), Togolese footballer nicknamed "Tulu" India *Tulu calendar, traditional solar calendar generally used in the regions of southwest Kar ...

languages and many non-film songs in Konkani,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

. Shankar has sung different kind of songs like film, devotional, Bhaavageethe, classical and folk songs. In her 30 years singing career, Kasturi has worked with a variety of music composers, including

T. G. Lingappa Thiruchirappalli Govindarajulu Lingappa (22 August 1927 – 5 February 2000) was an Indian music director who worked predominantly in Kannada language films. He also worked in Tamil and Telugu movies. He was the son of G. Govindarajulu Naidu w ...

M. Ranga Rao M. Ranga Rao (26 April 1932 – 3 August 1990) was a prominent Indian composer who predominantly worked in Kannada cinema. Rao was known for his mellifluous scores and lilting tunes backed with strong classical nuances. "Ranga Rao" composed tune ...

Vijaya Bhaskar Vijaya Bhaskar ( kan, ವಿಜಯಭಾಸ್ಕರ್; 1924–2002) was an Indian music director and composer who composed music for several mainstream and experimental feature films in the Kannada film industry. Scoring music for over 600 fe ...

Rajan–Nagendra Rajan–Nagendra were an Indian musical duo who were prominent composers of film music in Kannada and Telugu cinema from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Rajan, along with his brother Nagendra, created a niche for themselves for nearly four de ...

, Gunasingh,

G. K. Venkatesh Gurusala Krishnadas Venkatesh (21 September 1927 – 17 November 1993) was an Indian film score composer who primarily worked in Kannada cinema during the 1960s, 1970s and until the late-1980s. He also composed music for Telugu, Malayalam and Ta ...

and others. She has sung many duets with

Dr. Rajkumar Singanalluru Puttaswamaiah Muthuraj (24 April 1929 – 12 April 2006), better known by his stage name Dr. Rajkumar, was an Indian actor and singer who worked in Kannada cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest actors in the history of Indian ci ...

Vani Jairam Vani Jairam (born as Kalaivani on 30 November 1945), also credited as Vani Jayaram, is an Indian singer. She is best known as a playback singer in South Indian cinema. Vani's career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades. She has do ...

, Dr. P.B. Srinivas,

T. M. Soundararajan Thoguluva Meenatchi Iyengar Soundararajan (24 March 1923 – 25 May 2013), popularly known as TMS, was an Indian Carnatic musician and a playback singer in Tamil cinema for over six and a half decades. He sang over 10,138 songs from 3,162 fi ...

, Vishnuvardhan, KJY and with SPB. Kasturi Shankar's popular film songs like ''Sooryana kanthige ''(for

Padmapriya Padmapriya (born Padmalochani; died 16 November 1997) was an Indian actress who worked in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. Her first movie was in Telugu, ''Adapillala Tandri'' (1974). In Kannada, she debuted with '' Bangarada Gudi' ...

), ''Sri tulasi daye thoramma'' (for Jayanthi), ''Rangena halliyage'' (for

Aarathi Aarathi (born 1954) is an Indian actress who mainly acted in Kannada cinema, Kannada films during the 1970s and 1980s. She has won the Filmfare Awards South, Filmfare awards South and the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actress four times ...

), ''Sri rama bandavne'', ''Raamanu baralilla'' made her name popular among listeners.

Early life

Kasturi Shankar was born in

Mysuru Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

on 1 November 1950 to Girijamma and J. C. Shankarappa. her father was a freedom fighter. She studied SSLC and trained classical music for few years. When Kanagal Prabhakar Shastry spotted Kasturi Shankar's talent, gave her a chance to sing in his film, called ''Bettada gowri''. Then she went on to work with many super hit movies of

Puttanna Kanagal Shubraveshti Ramaswamiah Seetharama Sharma (1 December 1933 – 5 June 1985), known popularly as S. R. Puttanna Kanagal, was an Indian filmmaker known for his work in Kannada cinema. He is often considered one of Kannada cinema's most influent ...

, KSL Swamy,

B. S. Ranga Bindiganavile Srinivas Iyengar Ranga (11 November 1917 – 12 December 2010) was an Indian photographer, actor, producer and director who has made many landmark movies in Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil. He was also the owner of Vikram Studios. He ...

and with many others. Kasturi married to Shankar and they have two children. Now they are residing in Bangalore.

Notable songs

some of her songs are * "gudi serada mudiyerada" (''Bhagyajyothi'') * "sooryana kanthige" (''Thaayige takka maga'') * "rangena halliyage" (''Bilee hendthi'') * "raamanu baralilla" (''Mithileya seetheyaru'') * "sri rama bandavne" (''Paduvaralli panavaru'') * "sri tulasi daye thoramma" (''Tulasi'')

Awards

Kasturi Shankar has received many awards for her contribution to music. Few are *

Rajyotsava award The Rajyotsava Prashasti or Rajyotsava Awards, the second highest civilian honor of the Karnataka state of India are conferred annually by the Government of Karnataka, Karnataka Government on the occasion of the establishment of the state on 1 ...

Karnataka government The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as, GoK, or simply Karnataka Government, is a democratically-elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka. The governor who is appointed ...

* Atthimabbe award *

Kempegowda Award The Kempegowda Award or Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Award is a civilian award presented annually by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The award nomination is based on the notable contributions of civilians, in th ...

BBMP The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is the administrative body responsible for civic amenities and some infrastructural assets of the Greater Bengaluru metropolitan area. It is the fourth largest Municipal Corporation in India an ...

* Vachana sahitya sree award by Basava sahitya vedike

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shankar, Kasturi Kannada playback singers Singers from Mysore 1950 births Living people