The engineer-turned singing star

In our special year-end section, Rediff.com looks at people who wrote the India story in 2010.

Patcy N met the talented Sreeram who has already tasted the first notes of success.

The cheerful winner of Indian Idol 2010 seems to have hit the high note -- he is the only Idol after Abhijeet Sawant, the winner of the first season, who has seen a fair amount of success after winning the title.

"Life was very normal before and after Indian Idol," he says, "Everybody struggles before achieving something, I did too and it is the same even after winning the title. The only difference is that I have an identity now."

After his Class 10, music almost vanished from his life. He went away to boarding school and was immersed in his studies. It was only after two years when he came back home to join an electrical engineering course, he began learning Carnatic music and simultaneously did engineering and Carantic music for five years.

"In the first year of engineering, I told my parents that it was not my cup of tea and I wanted to pursue music," he says.

"My parents were very supportive. They allowed me to do stage performances. Their only clause was that I should finish engineering so that if I don't do well in music, I would have an education to fall back on. Their worries were genuine, so I completed engineering."

Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Sreeram's father M S N Prasad is an advocate in the high court; his mother Jayalakshmi is a homemaker. His younger sister Ashwini is in her second year BA.

Once he was selected he had to convince his parents. "They had some doubts. They were not sure where I was heading. I am not from a musical family and they did not know much about this contest, so they cautioned me," he says.

"Once I was selected they were glad and from then on it became easy for me because I had their support."

Sreeram stayed in Mumbai for the duration of the contest and was determined to only return home after he had achieved what he had set out to do. It was a chance he had waited for all these years and he wanted to make a career of his singing talent.

"Winning or losing was not my point, my point was that the whole of India should know my talent and I should be on the stage as a good singer."

"After Indian Idol, life has changed for good and it is definitely not a small change because I got to sing for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Trader -- and that is not small. If it was not for Indian Idol I would have never got Narnia."

Other opportunities came knocking -- his first concert was an international one, held in Germany where he was the only singer representing India at a show organised by the Bertelsmann Music Group celebrating its 175th anniversary.

He was also part of the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony in New Delhi where he performed with leading Indian musicians. His song in Narnia was recorded in three languages: Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Fox Star Studios, the producers of Narnia heard his album Rehnuma, released by Sony Music and wanted to use the title track in the film. But they wanted him to sing in Tamil and Telugu too.

He regrets that he does not get enough time with his family. "I feel this is a kind of a job where you can't be in one place for more than two days so my parents understand my point, but we try to spend quality time together."

"I didn't get the bulk amount of the prize money," he says, "That takes some time as it comes in intervals. After deducting tax, it is divided into eight instalments that I get it over two years time, every three months."

He is thrilled to have won three motorcycles during the course of the show. "I got one. The other two I have not got as yet, but I am thinking of exchanging them for a sports bike," he grins.