Known for her versatility in various forms of performing arts, Ujjayinee is a singer-songwriter, actor, dancer, columnist and poet. 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 also lent her voice for numerous jingles, ad-films and voice-overs. She is also a popular actor for television and the silver screen.
Her journey in to the world of music began in the small town of Agartala at the age of three when she began training in Hindustani Classical Music. She trained under two gurus, Shri Ganesh Dev Burman and then Pandit Ramendranath Dey. Ujjayinee started performing for All India Radio and Doordarshan Kendra from the age of seven. By the time she was eighteen, she was already a graded artist and composer with All India Radio. In the meanwhile, she also started performing in classical and light classical concerts, her debut being facilitated by her guru late Pt. Ramendranath Dey, as per traditions of Indian Classical Music. After training in Hindustani Classical Music for twenty years Ujjayinee moved to the city of Bangalore. Since then she has lived in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai travelling and performing in local and International concerts. She currently resides and travels between Mumbai and Chennai where she performs and teaches music. 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 also been a participant in popular reality shows likes SaReGaMa (Zee Television) and Pop Stars (Channel V). 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 compositions.
In the year 2011 Ujjayinee met guitar player and music producer from Germany and Los Angeles, Ed DeGenaro and thereby started a new musical journey for her. She collaborated with him for his jazz fusion album “Holiday in Madras” lending her voice as well as co-producing some of the tracks. They founded the band Elektrik Circus and have performed in various venues. She has also released various of her independent compositions in a compilation called “This Feels Right". Ujjayinee has also released another original compilation called “Novocain For The Soul” with music producer Amit Gupta. Currently she, celebrated indian trumpeter Kishore Sodha and Ed DeGenaro have come together to work on an independent album called Ménage à Trois. Ujjayinee currently works as a senior faculty at True School of Music in Mumbai.
Ujjayinee was also 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 the top chartbusters in independent music. Recently she went on a European tour of twenty-nine concerts with the Sailing Conductors wherein she performed her original compositions with other artists from Germany, South Africa, Australia and Brazil.
Apart from music Ujjayinee is an extremely popular actor on two TV series on Sun Television produced by SaReGaMa. 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 and web series. 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 the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, a premiere music institute in India.
Contact