V ijay Prakash, who started off with singing jingles for advertisements, is now all set to host one of the most popular talent hunt show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Kannada, produced by actor-turned-producer Anuj Saxena. Recently, he was noticed for singing the title song in Balki's Cheeni Kum that took his career uphill.
"It was a good turning point for me. After singing the title song for Cheeni Kum, I've been getting many interesting offers. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is one of them. Actually Balki, the director of the film, knew me because he is also from the advertising field. He called me for the song and luckily Amitji also approved it," shares Vijay.
The show, which will be on air by August 24, is already very popular in Karnataka and this is the new season that Vijay will be hosting. Speaking about the show, he says, "I am very excited about it because this will be my first show as a host. Right now they are conducting auditions all over the state and this will be a new season. It will be special in the sense that the participants will be married women between 18 to 35 years of age."
While Vijay comes from Karnataka, he can sing jingles in nine languages and is very fluent in six of them. He has also dubbed for Abhishek Bachchan in Dhoom 2 in Telugu and Tamil and for Saif Ali Khan in Ta Ra Rum Pum in Telugu. He sings jingles in Oriya and Bengali also, though he doesn't know these languages. His famous Hindi jingles are ICICI Hum Hain Na, Pepsi Yeh Pyaas Hai Badi and Pan Paraag, among others.
Though Vijay has been doing a lot of work in the industry, he got his first break as a playback singer in Swades where he sang Pal Pal Hai Bhari. "I have been singing alaaps earlier but Swades was my proper debut as a singer. Then I sang for many films like Kyun Ho Gaya Na, Pooja Bhatt's Holiday and very recently Cheeni Kum," says Vijay.
Vijay, who is singing for films in the South, is planning to release his private album very soon. Explaining the details about this album, he says, "It will be a complete Hindi album and will have a lounge feel to it. Though it will have same soft romantic songs, I am trying to do something different in terms of music so that it stands out."
After singing for Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan in the beginning of his career, which other actor does he dream of singing for? "Whenever I am offered to sing for an actor, I understand his role and his personality and then sing for the character. I never sing just for any actor," says Prakash.
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