MUMBAI: Vijay Prakash has been contributing to the Bollywood music scene for close to a decade now and is slowly but steadily making his presence felt.

Hailing from a musicians' family in Mysore, the singer was exposed to Carnatic classical music from an early age. "I was exposed to Carnatic music for the initial 20 years of my life. But then there was an urge to explore myself in different genres. I wanted to move out and test my skills on a wider spectrum." The singer came to Mumbai and joined Suresh Wadkar as his student in 1996 to learn Hindustani Classical music.

In 1999, Prakash took part in the Zee TV music reality show Saregama Challenge then hosted by Sonu Nigaam then, where he was the mega finalist. "It was a good platform to let yourself be known to the world," he says.

Prakash has lent his voice for over 3000 jingles for several top jingle music directors including Leslie Lewis, Salim Sulaiman and several voice overs. "But it is difficult to give justice to your talent in the 30-40 second jingle," says Prakash who has also sung for the background score of movies like Main Hoon Na, Tere Naam, Krrish and some 40 other films.

The singer whose debut film was Baag for music director Ismail Darbar, got his big break came when A R Rahman roped him to sing for Swades. He then went on to sing for various music directors including Shankar Ehsaan Loy. "My full fledged solo song was for Illayaraja for Cheeni Kum. All the songs I had sung prior to this included multiple singers and I dint get noticed. But nevertheless, it was a good experience working with such talented people." The singer also got noticed for the raga based track Manmohini in Rahman's Yuvraaj  

Prakash has also released 10-12 spiritual albums with Times Music before his big moment of glory came with Oscar winning track 'Jai ho' for which he mouthed the powerful words. The singer's moment of glory  "I am greatful to Rahman sir for giving me the break. After the song became such a hit I have been offered to judge various reality shows in south and have also bagged few projects down there."

The singer is hopeful that 2010 will help him bag plum projects in the industry. "I am hoping to bag good solo projects in the year," adds Prakash.

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