many doors were shut before ts ayyappan as he started out with his playback singing journey but those that opened compensated for them all the malayali singer now works lends backing vocals to many top composers of south india and debuts as a mainstream vocalist through one of the much awaited films of the year kamal haasans uthama villain ayyappan is behind the mike for three of its songs in its tamil and telugu versions which are also written by kamal haasan he has written it in classic tamil style reminiscent of the words in thirukkural and i feel blessed to have sung for him says ayyappan adding the song structures and presentation are hardly runofthemill with the elements of theyyam and storystyle narrations incorporated into it however even commoners can enjoy its symphony the songs he is part of are uthaman kathai mutharasan kathai and saagavaram but the icing on the cake is that kamal haasans words of appreciation reached ayyappan through the films composer ghibran though a beginner i felt on top of the world after hearing it he says growing up ayyappan hardly considered music his calling though he used to win prizes sing in devotional albums and even stage classical concerts its his mother saraswathy who encouraged him to stay musically active she sings and wished to be trained in music but that never happened says ayyappan who finally decided to drop it all for music post his mba i was one of the finalists in a bank interview but had already made up my mind to pursue music seriously i told my family about it and also confessed my fears on whether taking the risk will prove fruitful but they wholeheartedly supported me in fact from his deathbed my dad asked when i will sing for ar rahman that is my aim in life when ayyappan took off for chennai he hardly knew anyone there his paths crossed with many mainstream singers and film personalities who lauded his voice and two of them have been offering him unmatched support since the beginning unnikrishnan and anuradha sriram im training under unnikrishnan sir who does not charge me a penny and am also privileged to be his only disciple at the moment he says being someone interested in composing and writing as well ayyappan performed only his own songs even during playback auditions i am lucky to have got good feedback for them i am also planning to officially launch my band boomerang this year the launch of an audio cd with my own compositions is also on the cards he says before uthama villain he had also lent backing vocals for the compositions of vidyasagar harris jayaraj dsp ss thaman deva keba gopi sunder and deepak dev ayyappans upcoming songs are for a kannada project the singer also wishes to spread his wings to other south indian industries making it big in this industry is no piece of cake and im glad to be