Bombay Jayashri

Jayashri Ramnath was born to sing. The polymath vocalist is among the foremost Carnatic classical musicians of her generation, having trained in the style under her music-teaching parents and subsequently with gurus T. R. Balamani and legendary violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman, whose tutelage she says was instrumental in shaping her as an artist. Taking the name Bombay Jayashri—after the city where she was raised—she debuted as a live performer in 1982, starting a career defined by a constant pursuit for knowledge and an openness to absorb and experiment with all kinds of music. She is among the rare group of Carnatic singers to have also studied Hindustani classical music, which she learnt from K. Mahavir Jaipurwale and Ajay Pohankar. Her concert repertoire, recordings and collaborations have spanned bhajans, advertising jingles, ghazals, lullabies, Western classical and film songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. Among her best-known soundtrack contributions are “Vaseegara” from the Tamil film Minnale (2001) with Harris Jayaraj (as well as “Zara Zara” from its Hindi remake Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein) and Best Original Song Oscar nominee “Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi (2012), which she co-wrote with Mychael Danna. With a background in Bharatanatyam, she has composed scores for dance dramas too. She is also the founder of the Hitham Trust, an initiative that teaches music to school students in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu as well as differently abled children. Over her illustrious career, Bombay Jayashri has received numerous awards and accolades, most recently the Padma Shri in 2021 and the Madras Music Academy’s Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 2023.