Karthik (November 7, 1980) is an Indian playback singer and composer from Chennai. Born into a Tamil family, he showed great passion for music from a very young age, studying Carnatic music and performing in several local festivities. With the help of playback singer Srinivas, who was a close friend’s cousin, Karthik fulfilled his dream of working with legendary film composer A.R. Rahman, first as a backup vocalist and then as a singer on the films Pukar (2000) and Star (2001). From there on, he went on to collaborate with the biggest names in the Indian film industry, namely Ilaiyaraaja, Hamsalekha, Vidyasagar, Devi Sri Prasad, Harris Jayaraj, and Manisharma, singing over 5000 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Hindi. In 2010, Karthik recorded one of his biggest hits, “Behene De” from the romantic film Raavanan, which topped the charts for several weeks and brought him nationwide acclaim. The track also earned him a Best Male Playback Award at the 2010 Filmfare Awards South. In the following years, he made his debut as a composer, writing music for the motion pictures Aravaan (2012), Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum (2016), and Paava Kadhaigal (2020). In 2021, Karthik recorded the track “Thooriga,” featured on the episode Guitar Kambi Mele Nindru of the Tamil web series Navarasa.
