Top 10 Astonishing Facts about Dhee

 

 

Top 10 Astonishing Facts about Dhee

Dheekshitha Venkadeshan, known professionally as Dhee, is an Australian singer of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. She has sung songs mostly in her step-father Santhosh Narayanan’s albums and has once been nominated at the Filmfare Awards for Best Singer. She is known for her distinctive alto voice.

Dheekshitha was born in 1998 to a Sri Lankan Tamil father Venkadesan from Jaffna and a mother Meenakshi Iyer who is a Carnatic musician. She was raised and schooled in Sydney, Australia. She has an elder brother Sudheekshanan.

 She began her playback singing career by performing songs in two of Santhosh Narayanan’s albums, Pizza II: Villa (2013) and Cuckoo (2014), during breaks from her education. Dhee made a breakthrough by singing “Naan Nee” from Pa. Ranjith’s Madras (2014) alongside Shakthisree Gopalan.

 

 

1.  Dhee has no Professional Music Training

Brought up in Sydney, Dhee was born into a musical family. Under normal circumstances, she would have balanced her time between Sydney and Chennai, but at the moment, the thought of relocation hasn’t crossed her mind. In the nearest future, while she is in India, the singer hopes to push the new wave of music culture, direct from the roots of different cultures.

“This is the future,”  she recently told RollingStone India. Dhee wants to become an artist based in different locations who would render her voice for cultural identity. She mentioned that more than herself, her mother (renowned singer Meenakshi Iyer) often finds influences that show her Tamil roots. “There are a lot of influences that come from her as well as my grandpa, who’s from Jaffna and he’s also a writer,” she added

2.  Dhee was a Playback Musician

Sri Lankan-Australian playback singer Dheekshitha Venkadeshan is best known for singing the viral song Enjoy Enjaami, which has broken past language and culture barriers and become a global hit. A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not appear on the screen.

She has sung tracks in films like Madras, Irudhi Suttru, Soorarai Pottru and Jagame Thandhiram. It was Enjoy Enjaami, however, featuring rapper Arivu and produced by Santhosh Narayanan, that helped Dhee find worldwide fame.

3.  All Publicity is Good Publicity

When Dhee was featured on a magazine cover recently along with Canadian singer Shan Vincent de Paul, the internet was not happy. The reason, both the singers had found fame for songs penned by rapper Arivu, who was missing from the cover. Arivu had also sung the song Enjoy Enjaami alongside Dhee. The controversy has now sparked a renewed interest in the Sri Lankan-Australian singer’s work.

Copyright is defined in Black’s Law Dictionary (8th edition) as an act of violating any of a copyright owner’s exclusive rights. It seeks to protect the expression and recorded content of someone’s intellectual labours.

4. Enjoy Enjaami was Dhee’s Breakout Song

 

It was Enjoy Enjaami, however, featuring rapper Arivu and produced by Santhosh Narayanan, that helped Dhee find worldwide fame.

Released on March 5 2021, the Tamil song received 266 million views in just three months. It was later picked up by DJ Snake for a remix and became the first-ever Tamil Independent song to be showcased in Times Square Billboard. The song’s video has nearly 300 million views on YouTube.

It speaks about the history of labourers who have been exploited while they were working in the Sri Lankan tea estates and their struggle for land. The song was written by Arivu after he had a candid chat with his grandmother Valiammal, who worked as a bonded labourer in Sri Lankan tea estates.

5. Dhee’s biggest inspiration is her Step-Father

Dhee’s biggest inspiration is Narayanan, who is her stepfather. Earlier, she sang Ey Sandakaara song from Irudhi Suttru, another incredible composition by Narayanan, and became a chartbuster.

Having rendered all the five songs for her stepfather Santosh Narayanan, she says that though it’s cool working with him, she claims that he’s a taskmaster when it comes to her — “He’s extremely chilled out with every other singer. But, when it comes to me, he turns strict. He gives honest criticisms and suggestions, and it reflects in the output.

6.   Dhee is Very Artistic

Growing up, Dhee always had a penchant to do creativity as she loved fashion and interior designing. She is a very good painter too. Brought up in Sydney, Dhee was born into a musical family. Interior designers make indoor spaces functional, safe, and beautiful by determining space requirements and selecting essential and decorative items, such as colors, lighting, and materials. They must be able to draw, read, and edit blueprints.

Interior design is a good career choice, especially for those who want to show off their creativity in the most basic of ways. It allows one to put their natural abilities to use while also providing excellent job satisfaction.

7.  Meenakshi Iyer is Dhee’s Mother

Dheekshitha was born on 26 June 1998 to a Sri Lankan Tamil father Venkadesan from Jaffna and a mother Meenakshi Iyer who is a Carnatic musician. She was raised and did her schooling in Sydney, Australia. She has an elder brother Sudheekshanan. Dheekshitha is the step-daughter of Indian music composer Santhosh Narayanan.

Meenakshi Iyer is a Tamil playback singer. She had a lot of hit songs and she also sang on Santosh’s album. She also sang for many other albums like Jigarthanda, Madras & Chennai city Gangsta. Meenakshi sings in many languages besides Tamil, including Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Bengali and Kannada. Meenakshi Iyer’s family background is also musical, which is why She dreamed of becoming a singer since childhood.

8.  Dhee Lives both in Sydney & Chennai

Dhee is now based in Chennai and has been here since the national lockdown was enforced in March 2020. Under normal circumstances, she would have split her time between Sydney in Australia, where she is based, and Chennai, where her parents live. At the moment, the thought of relocation hasn’t crossed her mind, but she hopes platforms like Maajja reach out to artistes based in different locations and help provide the breakout opportunity.

Explaining how she balances her life between Sydney and Chennai, she says, “It’s an incredible feeling whenever I come to Chennai. People here are so warm and I love to hang out here. I miss the city whenever I go back home!”

9. Dhee is a talent to Watch

 

Having achieved viral fame and popularity at a young age, what else has Dhee got in her checklist of things? She remarks that she doesn’t view the fame brought on by ‘Rowdy Baby’ as a measure of success.

“I feel like I’m only just starting out. I have only now started creating music. Even then, I don’t think there will ever be a point of ‘This is it!’ for me because it might make you not want to create music,” she concludes.

When queried if acting would someday add to her list of interests, she says she wouldn’t — “I’ll make a terrible actress! So, featuring in movies is not on  my cards anytime soon.”

On a concluding note, when asked about her longterm aspirations, Dhee says, “I perform several gigs in Australia. I would like to work on singles and independent albums very soon!”

10.  Enjoy Enjamii  Video was Filming Debut for Dhee

 

Her music video for ‘Enjoy Enjaami’, shot in Arivu’s hometown in Tiruvannamalai district, is the “first-ever time” 22-year-old Dhee has been filmed on camera for an independent track. Predictably, the camera-shy singer was nervous.

“I have always been [camera shy], even now on this Zoom call,” she laughs. “It was pretty scary at first but when you get there [and start filming], you just vibe to it and then it becomes fine. At the end of the day, I didn’t want to leave and didn’t want to stop.”