Biography
Known for her versatility in various forms of performing arts, Ujjayinee is a singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, voice actor and educator. She has been the voice behind numerous songs in mainstream Indian music and sung in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Telegu and Assamese films and has worked with various Indian music directors like A R Rahman, Illayaraja, Sajid -Wajid, Harris Jayaraj, Devi Shree Prasad, Yuvan Shankar Raja, M G Sreekumar and many more. She has acted in various feature films, television series, web series, reality shows and documentary films. She has also worked as a voice actor for numerous feature, animation and ad-films and web series.
Her foray into the world of music began in the small town of Agartala at the age of three when she began her training in Hindustani Classical Music. Having received training under two gurus in Indian classical music for twenty years, she is a graded artists and composer with All India Radio and Doordarshan. She currently resides in Mumbai. She has also been associated with Radio Mirchi as a radio jockey and producer. During the early days of her musical career, she had also been the founder member of bands like Tribe and Aurko. She has participated in popular reality shows like SaReGaMa (Zee Television) and Pop Stars (Channel V). Later in life she has also hosted an entire season of Zee Tamil's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. For many years Ujjayinee has been working and experimenting with various genres of music like opera, rock, Indian and Western classical, blues, jazz, folk music etc., and this versatility is visible in her voice as well as her original compositions.
With guitar player and music producer from Germany and Los Angeles, Ed DeGenaro, she has collaborated for his jazz fusion album "Holiday in Madras" lending her voice as well as co-producing some of the tracks. Together they founded the band Elektrik Circus. She has also released her original compositions in a compilation called "This Feels Right". With trumpet player Kishore Sodha and Ed DeGenaro, Ujjayinee has co-composed and released a jazz fusion album called Ménage a Trois in association with Universal Music Group and the label Inkk Audio.
Ujjayinee was jointly nominated for Global Indian Music Academy (GIMA) Awards along with guitar player Sanjeev Thomas for their single "Tanha - Alone" of which she was the vocalist and lyricist. Some of her original compositions like Kalighata - Rain Clouds" and "This Feels Right" have been rated amongst critically appreciated songs in independent music. Ujjayinee has also been fortunate to perform and collaborate with various Indian and international musicians of repute. The multi linguist Ujjayinee also sings in other foreign languages like German, Spanish, Italian, Latin and Portuguese.
Apart from music Ujjayinee has also been an extremely popular actor on three television series on Sun Television produced by SaReGaMa. They are Valli, Chandralekha and Roja. She started acting in theatre as a child and through the years moved to a larger medium through television and films. She has worked in numerous feature films, television and web series, reality shows and also featured on two German documentary films. Ujjayinee is also a bharatnatyam dancer and has performed in numerous venues, sabhas and dance festivals. She has also taught Hindustani Classical Music (vocals) at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, a premiere music institute in India and contemporary music as a senior faculty at Vijaybhoomi University (True School of Music).
