Vani Jairam, one of India’s most versatile voices, is no more

Veteran playback singer Vani Jairam, who has sung over 10,000 songs across several Indian languages, died at her residence in Chennai. She was 78.

In a career spanning over five decades, Vani Jairam had lent her voice to several songs across languages including Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Assamese, and Bengali. She has also recorded thousands of devotional songs and performed several solo concerts across the world as well.

Vani Jairam made her debut as a playback singer with the 1971 Hindi film Guddi which was directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

She was honoured with the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer in 1975, 1980, and 1991.

She was recently nominated for Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award.