Her voice would have you believe you are talking to a school girl; such is the nature and appeal of Pranavi Acharya’s voice. The appeal of her dulcet voice was recognised early, as she dubbed for a film when she was in her kindergarten itself. “My father T.K Vijay Kumar is a theatre artiste who has been dubbing a lot. I used to tag along with him everywhere and he encouraged me by offering me a chocolate if I dubbed,” she recalls. Her early tryst with the film industry saw her heading to Chennai for a dubbing job but which landed her the first singing assignment in Santosh Sivan’s Halo, when she was ten years old. It was composer Kalyani Malik who first introduced her to the Telugu film music industry Andhrudu. Later she established herself as a playback singer through ‘Suddhabrahma Paratpara Rama’ composed by M.M. Keeravani for Sri Ramadasu when she reached Intermediate. Pranavi admits it was Keeravani who encouraged her to sing by giving her hit numbers like ‘Rubbaru gajulu’ and ‘Nuv muttukunte’ in Yamadonga, ‘Pootha vesina’, ‘Palarathi Silpaniki’ in Samagamam etc.
Before her std Xth class, she even tried her hand at acting in TV serials like Kalavari Kodalu Kanamalaxmi and films like Hitler, Bala Ramayanam etc. “I just gave it up as I wasn’t interested in acting, I always wanted to pursue music,” the 22-year-old reveals.
Pranavi’s successes came with more than family support. Unlike her elder sister who is more inclined to sciences, Pranavi considered doing medicine but decided to focus on music instead and joined the then newly founded Little Musicians Academy (LMA).
“Apart from all the musical knowledge, our personalities developed a lot there, so we get respect; that’s very important in this industry,” she elaborates, adding that she also got trained in Carnatic music first from H. Hymavathy and now under V Balasubramanyam.
Moving beyond classical, film, and western music, Pranavi, along with five other musicians, formed a fusion band called Samhitha. The band has already released an eponymous album of western pop music with Telugu lyrics. Her tryst with independent albums also includes other albums like ‘Amogha,’ ‘Sri Venkatesham’, ‘Swasa’, ‘Fusion Ramadasu’, and ‘Taramathi.’
Apart from the odd jingles for CMR shopping mall and Chandana brothers and more, Pranavi has lent her voice to numerous TV serials. She says, “I enjoy even this. Film music has a commercial reach; you will be remembered only by the last hit. Songs for TV give me a new high... the title tracks are played everyday at homes, so I get a homely audience, they remember my voice so it’s great fun. Even jingles are exciting - nobody forgets a good jingle even if it’s less then a minute long.” It’s no wonder then this busy voice which has dubbed for over 300 films, 200 TV programs, documentaries, ads, serials etc has won several awards. While the Nandi Award for 2008 and 2009 for the Best Female Singer for the song ‘Sarigamapadani’ in Snehageetham and serial Turpu velle railu are the more popular awards, receiving the Best Classical Singer Award in 2004 from the legend Mangalampally Balamuralikrishna is a memory she cherishes the most. She was also awarded the Navayuvagalam Award for 2008 as Best Female singer for ‘Rabbaru gajulu.’
Having sung in Tamil Malayalam Kannada and Oriya also, Pranavi now dreams of singing western music on an international platform.
SELECT DISCOGRAPHY
‘Suddhabrahma Paratpara Rama’ - Sri Rama Dasu
‘Rubbaru gajulu’- Yamadonga
‘Nuvvu muttukunte’ - Yamadonga
‘Bhambarala’ - Yamadonga
‘Yakundendu’ - Happy Days
‘Alagake allari vayasa’ - Ankith Pallavi n friends
