Suchitra Ramadurai, known by the
mononym
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...
Suchitra, is an Indian radio jockey, popular playback singer, songwriter, composer, voice artist, dubbing artist and film actress. She has sung in multiple languages including
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 ...
,
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
,
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 ...
and
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 ...
.
Early life
Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. She has a sister named, Sunitha. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from
Mar Ivanios College
Mar Ivanios College is an autonomous educational institution situated in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. The college was ranked as 29th best college in the country by Ministry of Education's National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2019 ...
(Trivandrum). Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from
PSG Institute of Management. She was part of a music band at PSG.
Career
Suchitra joined
Sify
Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...
for a year, after graduating. She responded to an ad for the post of an RJ in
Radio Mirchi
Radio Mirchi (also known as 98.3 Mirchi) is a nationwide network of private FM radio stations in India. It is owned by the EntertainmentNetwork India Ltd (ENIL), which is one of the subsidiaries of The Times Group. ''Mirchi'' is Hindi for re ...
. She became known as Rj Suchi, with her popular morning show ''Hello Chennai''. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. She still does a radio show called ''Flight983'' on Radio Mirchi, on Sunday evenings (7–9 pm). The show deals with interesting international happenings.
She started singing after a few years as RJ. She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like
Shriya Saran
Shriya Saran Bhatnagar (; born 11 September 1982) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi-language films. Although Saran aspired to become a well-known dancer, she became an actress with her film debut in 2001 ...
and
Lakshmi Rai
Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with '' Maya'' ("Illusion"). Al ...
.
Her career as a playback singer now spans Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films and she has several hits in all these languages to her credit. She sang her first song for the movie,
Lesa Lesa
''Lesa Lesa...'' (), also referred to as ''Laysa Laysa'', is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Priyadarshan and produced by Vikram Singh, who previously produced '' 12B''. The film stars Shaam and Trisha, while Vivek, Radharav ...
under the composition of
Harris Jayaraj
Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Telugu and two films in Hindi.
He has been honoured with K ...
and her co-singer was the legendary,
K. S. Chitra
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra (born 27 July 1963), always credited as K. S. Chithra or Chithra, is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 25,000 songs in various I ...
. Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. She has also been appreciated for her honest and positive-humour-filled judging at reality shows like Vijay TV's Airtel Super Singer, Sun TV's Sun Singer, Asianet's Music India, and Bol Baby Bol on Gemini TV and Surya TV. 'Music I Like', an album of Suchitra's renditions of Mahakavi Bharatiyaar's poetry, set to contemporary tunes and music, released by Universal Music, was a turning point in her career.
Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. Her YouTube channel 'Suchislife' has all her updated work.
She wrote a short story, a graphic illustration of an episode in the life of a black peppercorn called Kuru-Milaku, called "The Runaway Peppercorn".
After her Twitter page was hacked in 2016, and the pictures and videos released by the hacker went viral under #suchileaks, following a spate of bad press owing to the fact that she only released a statement on Sun News saying she was focused on shutting the page down, Suchitra left for London to pursue culinary arts at
Le Cordon Bleu.
In 2020, Suchitra took part in the fourth season of the Tamil reality television show, ''
Bigg Boss Tamil
''Bigg Boss'' also known as ''BB'' is an Indian Tamil-language version of the reality TV program ''Bigg Boss''. The program follows the '' Big Brother'' format developed by Endemol in the Netherlands. Over five years, Bigg Boss has rolled ou ...
'' hosted by
Kamal Haasan. She entered the show on day 28 as a new contestant and was evicted on day 49.
Personal life
Suchitra was married to actor
Karthik Kumar
Karthik Kumar (born 21 November 1977) is an Indian stand-up comedian and actor in the Tamil film and television industries.
Biography
He studied chemical engineering in Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering.
After earning his Bachelor' ...
between 2005 and 2017.
On 7 March 2017, she applied for divorce.
Filmography
Actress
Dubbing artist
Discography
Tamil songs
Complete list of songs
Television
Awards
;
International Tamil Film Awards
The International Tamil Film Awards (ITFA) is an awards ceremony that honours excellence in Tamil language films around the world since 2003.
History
The awards began in 2003 and the awards honour films from the previous calendar year.
Award ...
(ITFA)
*
Best Female Playback Singer – ''
Mankatha
''Mankatha'' () is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action crime film written and directed by Venkat Prabhu. It stars Ajith Kumar in his 50th film, along with an ensemble cast including Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali, Andrea ...
''
;BIG Telugu Music Awards
* Best Singer of the Year – ''
Businessman
A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...
''
;
Filmfare Awards South 2013
*
Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Telugu
The Filmfare Best Female Playback Award - Telugu is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Telugu films. The first award in Telugu was given in 2006. However, since 1997 till 2005, a common award for ...
for the song 'Sir Osthara' from ''
Businessman
A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...
''
* Nominated: Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer– Telugu for the song 'Nijamena' from ''Brindavanam''
;
2nd South Indian International Movie Awards
The 2nd South Indian International Movie Awards were presented on September 12–13, 2013 in Sharjah, UAE, to honour the best cinematic achievements of the South Indian film industry in the year 2012. Initially planned for June 20–21, the dat ...
* Nominated: SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer, Best Female Playback Singer for the song 'Sir Osthara' from ''Businessman''
References
External links
Suchitra : I can sound sweet, sexy, bold or sensual(2010 archived copy)
Interview with RJ Suchitra
{{authority control
Living people
Tamil actresses
Indian women playback singers
Tamil playback singers
Kannada playback singers
Telugu playback singers
Indian radio presenters
Actresses in Tamil cinema
Singers from Chennai
Indian women radio presenters
Actresses from Chennai
21st-century Indian actresses
21st-century Indian women singers
21st-century Indian singers
Women musicians from Tamil Nadu
Bigg Boss (Tamil TV series) contestants
1982 births