A second year Computer Science student at SJCE in city.
Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing’ and for Ashwin M. Prabhu life has offered him not just a chance to work hard at what he loves doing, but has also given him the best and costliest prize he has bagged till date — a kitty of Rs. 5 lakhs!
Meet 18-year-old Ashwin M. Prabhu from Mysore, who won the ‘Star Singer’ award in the Star Singer contest hosted by Suvarna TV, the finals of which was held on June 8. Ashwin reached the finals with two of his fellow contestants marching ahead of 14 others.
“I’m too young and it’s too early for me to speak about my achievements, as I have a long way to go. I am happy I won the contest and every opportunity like this gives me a chance to work harder and accomplish something more in the field of music,” says the youngster for whom academic excellence too comes as easy as the trophies he wins at music competitions!
A 2nd year student of Computer Science at SJCE in city, Ashwin has been a topper throughout and has no problems juggling between his studies and his passion.
Winning the title was good but what was more heartening and gave him a sense of achievement was when the legendary singer S. Janaki, who was the judge for the finals, was so impressed with Ashwin’s singing that she walked up to the dais and hugged him! “It was very overwhelming for me to be appreciated thus by a singer of her stature…That was an award by itself!” says Ashwin who never failed to impress the other two judges — well-known singer Vijay Prakash and Music Director Giridhar Dewan — throughout the contest.
Starting his music lessons with his first guru S. Ratna, Ashwin learnt Karnatak classical under Vid. C. A. Sridhar and Gamaka vocal with Shubha Raghavendra. He is now training for senior-level in Karnatak music under Vid. R. S. Nandakumar.
With a sound base in classical music, Ashwin’s love for Sugam Sangeeth was kindled by the well-known singer late Raju Ananthaswamy. Raju, who had his own inimitable style of singing, encouraged Ashwin to sing more of songs in the sugam sangeet genre. Music has no boundaries and Ashwin is into all genres of singing today, making him a versatile singer.
“Raju Sir was an embodiment of talent as a singer and a presenter. One needs to learn from him the art of presenting songs in the sugam sangeet genre where lyrics are the real show stealers. He used to bring alive the sentiments of the poets so well that it would reach out to a listener who knew nothing about music too,” reminisces Ashwin who tries hard to follow in his master’s foot-steps. He has accompanied Raju in many music programmes.
Winning has become almost a habit for Ashwin ever since he started participating in contests since the age of 6. Among several prizes and titles that he has won, the most notable ones are he being recognised as Mysore district-level ‘Extraordinary Music Talent’ by the Women and Child Welfare Department, Government of Karnataka, for the year 2010 and winning the first place in the State-level Bhavageete contest twice, conducted by Sugam Sangeeth Academy of well-known singer H.R. Leelavathi. He also stood 4th for Mysore in the Junior Karnatak vocal exam and 1st for Mysore in the Gamaka Prathama vocal conducted by Karnataka Gamaka Parishat. He also presided over one of the sessions of State-level 2nd Children’s Gamaka Conference held at Udupi in November 2011 under the aegis of Karnataka Gamaka Kala Parishat.
Among the TV shows, Ashwin had gone up to the semi-finals in the Sarigamapa Little Champs on Zee Kannada and Little Star Singer on Suvarna TV.
Ashwin has accompanied well- known singers on stage shows in the city and other places and was specially invited by noted singer Sangeeta Katti Kulkarni to sing in Bendre Geethe Yaatre held in city last year.
Ashwin emphasises that there is nothing ‘fake’ about Reality Shows on TV! “All the shows that I have attended have been real and there was no drama or anything fake about it. All comments we get too are as seen on TV and no drama added,” he says adding he doesn’t find anything negative about such shows and on the other hand these shows have given him a chance to experience how it feels to sing in front of a camera.
In fact many of the special judges on the show, who were so impressed with his dashing looks and screen presence on the show wanted to know if Ashwin would join the movies! Ashwin is a very good calligraphist and a creative painter too!
But for this talented youngster who took up engineering instead of medicine, so he would have more time to pursue music, it’s only his academic studies and music lessons right now, as he knows there’s a lot of hard work and dedication needed if he wants to make a mark in the field of music, especially classical music. S.P. Balasubramanyam and Mohd. Rafi are his idols who enchant and inspire him everytime he hears them singing.
His proud parents Mohandas Prabhu, Head-Operations at VST Tillers and Tractors in city and mother Jyothi Prabhu too agree that academics cannot take a backseat. Ashwin’s elder brother Sandeep Prabhu, who is pursuing his MBA at TAPMI, Manipal, has been his constant support.
All the accolades he has earned at such a young age sit lightly on his shoulder for he knows that these achievements are only his stepping stones to a bigger ones.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / by Nandini Srinivasan / Saturday – June 28th, 2014