Yamini did it her way

Hailing from the family of renowned composer Sai Srinivas Thaman, Yamini Ghantasala could have easily made her foray into singing for Kollywood movies directly but she decided to make her own effort instead of riding on the shoulders of her successful brother and started her journey by singing cover songs. The sister of S.S Thaman did not shy away from working hard to make her own mark.

Her recent song ‘Gira gira gira’ from the movie Dear Comrade became extremely popular and got rave reviews. The song depicting marriage easily connected with the listeners and crossed over 4 million views in You tube. Yamini was not aware she was going to sing a song for Dear Comrade when she went for recording.

Recalling her experience, she says, “My involvement in ‘Gira gira gira’ song has been very surprising. I went there and I sang it as a track and that became the final cut. I connected to the song the moment I heard the tune. I wrote down the lyrics and I closed the book as the song had a lot of depth and rooted earthy vibrations. I learnt the song and I sang it and 8 months later I recorded the Kannada version as well.”

She added, “I have always admired Justin Prabhakaran’s compositions. He would tell me that he is going to call me soon but I did not know that this was the song he was looking to call me for.”    

Yamini Ghantasala studied in Prashanthi Nilayam in Puttaparthi during her childhood. She lost her father at a very small age and her brother was the only breadwinner of the family. Having gone through extreme difficult moment during the early part of her career, it was her strong bond with her mother and brother which kept her going during testing times.

In a candid chat, Yamini avers, “I used to sing from childhood. My teachers and principal used to encourage me a lot in my music from school days. I was part of the Scottish band in school and was the lead bagpiper from 6th standard. When I came home for holidays, my mother would teach me a few devotional songs and I would go and perform at school as part of the special events there.”

Yamini completed her B.Sc in Information System Management and worked in a firm for 9 years in marketing and HR. “I did a cover version of ‘Atachbayee’ from Sairaat that reached 1 million views. I have been doing cover versions in Marathi, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. I made my debut in the year 2016 with ‘Aagayamey’ for the movie Yaanum Theeyavan composed by Achu Rajamani. Then I sang ‘Yemaindi’ from the movie Rangula Raatnam in Telugu for music director Sricharan Pakala. I did a cover version for the song ‘Enna Solla’ from the movie Thangamagan and it got rave reviews.

Yamini recently recorded a song in Telugu called ‘Paluke Bangarama’ again for composer Sricharan Pakala from the movie Operation Goldfish. She got great response for this song too. Composer Sricharan Pakala flew down from Hyderabad to record this song with her. She says, “The music of this song is very minimalistic and the song is extremely soothing.”  

Interestingly, Yamini Ghantasala has never sung for her brother S.S Thaman. She avers, “I am definitely sure my brother has something planned for me and he may soon prepare a dream project for me. I am waiting for the day.”