Indian classical and playback singer Bombay Jayashri Ramnath, who received an Oscar nomination for rendering a song in Ang Lee’s ‘Life of Pi’, has reportedly suffered a brain aneurysm in the UK, where she was visiting to perform.
The acclaimed singer was found lying unconscious in her hotel room, Indian media reported citing sources close to the singer. She was immediately rushed to a hospital, reports said, where a surgery was performed on her.
Jayashri Ramnath will be airflifted to southern Indian metropolis of Chennai, her hometown, once she stabilises. She was due to perform at the Tung Auditorium, Yoko Ono Lennon Centre at the University of Liverpool today evening.
A recipient of India’s fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, Jayashri Ramnath is a disciple of the late Indian violinist Lalgudi G Jayaraman and TR Balamani, who also taught the composer Shankar Mahadevan. A trained vocalist in the Hindustani and Carnatic schools of Indian classical music, she is a regular on concert stages and recording studios across the world.
'Pi's Lullaby' from 'Life of Pi', which was sung by Jayashri Ramnath and composed by Mychael Danna, was nominated for the 'Best Song' at the 85th Academy Awards. It lost out to Adele's 'Skyfall'.
Jayashri Ramnath is popular for lending her voice to the songs ‘Vaseegara’, from the Tamil movie ‘Minnale’ (2001), and its Hindi version ‘Zara Zara Behekta Hai’ from ‘Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein’. Her earthy voice ensured that the songs were a love anthem in the years to come.
The vocalist also sang for the soundtrack of Mahesh Dattani's critically acclaimed 'Morning Raga' (2004), which was set to music by Amit Heri. The movie, starring Shabana Asmi, Prakash Kovelamudi, Nassar and Perizaad Zorabian, focuses on the lives of three contemporary Indian musicians.
The singer will be conferred with the 'Sangeetha Kalanidhi' 2023 award by the prestigious Music Academy, based in Chennai. The academy is considered a landmark institution for the fine arts in the region and artistes getting to perform there, leave alone winning an honour, is considered an acme of achievement. An announcement regarding this was made earlier this week.
In a statement on social media, the singer had then said: "I'm honoured and thrilled at this moment to be honoured by The Music Academy as the designate for the honour of the Sangita Kalanidhi this year.":
Born in Kolkata, Jayashri Ramnath has sung in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam films, and has extensively collaborated with leading composers like Academy Award winner AR Rahman, Ilayaraaja, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Harris Jayaraj and M Jayachandran, to name a few.
