Vijay Prakash (February 21, 1976) is an Indian composer and playback singer who sings in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and Marathi. Hailing from the city of Mysore in Karnataka, he began his training in Carnatic music under the tutelage of Bellary.M.Raghavendra. In 1996, he relocated to Mumbai to pursue a career in music and studied under Suresh Wadkar. In 1999, Vijay Prakash made it to the grand finale of the singing reality competition Sa Re Ga Ma and eventually went on to become one of the show’s judges. His big breakthrough in the film industry arrived in 2002 when he featured on the soundtrack of the Hindi film Baaz. “Pal Pal Hai Bhaari,” the first of many collaborations with legendary composer A.R. Rahman, appeared in the film Swades (2004), followed by the title track of the Tamil film New later that year. Further success ensued with the song “Jai Ho,” which featured Vijay Prakash in its chorus and won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song. In the following years, he made his debut as a composer on the Kannada action film Andhar Bahar (2013) and won two Filmfare awards for Best Male Playback Artist – Kannada for his work on Ulidavaru Kandante (2014) and Kirik Party (2016). Subsequently, Vijay Prakash continued to collaborate closely with India’s thriving film industry, lending his voice to the soundtrack of box office hits such as Raajakumara (2018), Yuvarathnaa (2021), and Pushpa: The Rise (2021), whose Kannada version included the songs “Jokke Jokke Meke” and “Eyy Maga Idhu Nan Jaaga.”
