Padma Shri Hariharan - one of the pioneers of Indian Fusion music is among the most sought-after and respected singers of our country who has carved a unique niche for himself.

Hariharan was born to classical musicians H. A. S. Mani and Alamelu Mani. H. A. S. Mani - he was affectionately called Chellamani - groomed many Carnatic singers in Mumbai where he died in his early 40s due to cardiac arrest in 1963. His mother had a long career as a Carnatic vocalist and a distinguished teacher and was honoured with the title Sangeeta Pracharya in 2019. Hariharan did his schooling at Don Bosco High School, Matunga, and graduated from SIES College of Arts, Science & Commerce, Mumbai. Thereafter, he pursued his studies at St. Xavier`s College, Mumbai.

Hariharan has two high-ranking national awards to his credit i.e. Padma Shri and Yesudas. He has also sung over 15,000 notable songs in 10 languages including Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Sinhala, Bhojpuri, Odia, Bengali, Sanskrit, Gujarati, and English. He is an established ghazal singer and one of the pioneers of Indian fusion music. A versatile singer and composer Hariharan is equally popular and at ease in different genres of music including Ghazals, Carnatic Classical as well as Jazz and Fusion.

He is a two-time National Award winner. Hariharan, along with Lesle Lewis, formed the duo Colonial Cousins. They have cut many private music albums and also scored music for few feature films in Tamil and Hindi. In 1992, Hariharan and late Gulshan Kumar`s Hanuman Chalisa recorded under the label of T-Series crossed the 3-billion views mark on YouTube, making it the first devotional song in the world to do so. He also invented a new style called Ghazal Blues which is received very well.