Veteran playback singer Malaysia Vasudevan passed away in a private hospital in Chennai on Sunday. He was admitted a few days before after he suffered cardiac arrest.
Born in Malaysia, he moved to India and found a career as a singer and actor in stage plays. Later, he started singing for movies and, to date, has nearly 8,000 songs in Tamil and over 4,000 songs in other South Indian languages to his credit. He has also acted in nearly 85 films.
His first song was for the film Delhi to Madras. He then did a stint with M S Viswanathan and was eventually sought by Ilaiyaraja and Bharathiraja to sing in the film 16 Vayathinile. He has also sung few songs in Hindi. He has been awarded Kalaimamani by the Tamil Nadu Government.
Veteran Tamil director A P Nagarajan christened him as 'Malaysia Vasudevan'. He has worked with many music directors such as M S Viswanathan, Ilaiyaraja, Shankar-Ganesh, Deva, A R Rahman, and Vidyasagar.
After T M Sounderajan, he was called as ghost voice for Sivaji Ganesan.
He has also acted in a good number of Tamil films. Some of his films include Mudhal Vasantham (with Sathyaraj),Oomai Vizhigal (with Vijayakant), Kathanayagan (with Pandiyarajan) Oru Kaidhiyin Diary (with Kamal Hassan), Jallikattu, Thiruda Thiruda, Amaidhippadai, Povae Unnakaga, Punnagai Desam, Kokki etc.
