Veteran singer Vani Jairam passes away

HYDERABAD: The Telugu film industry is getting hit hard for the last few days. Last week, we lost senior star heroine Jamuna. Yesterday, we lost one of the accomplished filmmakers of Indian cinema, K. Vishwanath. Today, we have lost legendary singer Vani Jairam.

This National Award-winning singer passed away earlier today at her residence in Chennai. Reportedly, she died due to a head injury. More details regarding her death are awaited. She was 78. In her illustrious career, Jairam has sung various super hit songs in multiple languages.

Right from her childhood, Jairam got trained in classical music. But she made her playback singing debut only in the 1970s. In the five decades of her career, Jairam sang more than 50,000 songs in various languages like Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Odia and Bengali.

She won three National Awards, three Filmfare Awards and state awards from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh governments. Just a few days ago, the government of India announced Padma Bhushan (third highest civilian award in India) award to Vani Jairam.

Her demise will leave a void in the Indian musical world. Her fans and film celebrities are mourning her death and paying their last respects.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Sri YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has expressed grief and shock over the demise of Smt Vani Jayaram, the rare and puritan version of classical music.

The Chief Minister said that the singer has struck a chord of strong classical base on a Pan-India level and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family members.