Vasundhara Das

Vasundhara Das (born 1977) is an Indian actress and singer  born in a Tamil Brahmin-Iyengar family from Bangalore. Her pet name is Lovely. She studied at Cluny Convent High School, Bangalore and Mount Carmel College, graduating in Economics and Mathematics.

She began training in Hindustani Classical music since the age of six. She used to run away from home to avoid taking music lessons. In her college days, she was part of an all-girl band and can play some Flamenco strums on her guitar.

She speaks Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, English, and some Telugu.

Das began acting with the Kamal Hasan film Hey Ram (1999) and her playback singing career began when she worked with A. R. Rahman for the Tamil-language film Mudhalvan. She was considered for the role of heroine by Mani Ratnam in his movie 'Alaipayuthey' opposite R. Madhavan. She played heroine alongside the veteran actor Mohanlal in the Malayalam movie Ravanaprabhu and She also played the female lead role opposite Ajith in the Tamil movie Citizen.

Das has also recorded her own album of non-film songs, and sung in French, English, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.

She shifted her base from Bangalore to Mumbai and founded a musical band named Arya with Roberto Narain. The band comprises musicians from various backgrounds in world music, ranging from Hindustani and Carnatic classical music to jazz, Latin, rock and pop. Arya�s music can be broadly classified as World Music. Arya�s first performance was at the prestigious festival La Mar de Musicas, in Spain in 2003. The band performed a tour in the US in September 2004. Roberto Narain plays the drums and she provides the western and the Indian vocals.

She has sung one song for maestro Ilaiyaraaja, pattu viral thottu vittadhaal, in the Tamil movie Dhanush directed by A M Gurumani. She has sung a song in Lagaan for the British character played by Rachel Shelley. She is also renowned for "Kattipudi, Kattipudi da" from the movie Kushi.

She often sings for the actress Preity Zinta among others.

Prepared by: Dr. Susie Pazhavarical