Ravisankar was born and raised in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, to S. Ramachandran Nair and S. Hamsini Thankam. He started learning music during his school days from his mother, who is a teacher at Bharatiya Vidyabhavan, Trivandrum. Later, he formally studied music under such renowned musicians as L. Vaikuntapaty, Perumbavoor G. Ravindranath and M. G. Radhakrishnan. Beginning in his school days, he took part in light music singing competitions such as the Kerala University and inter-university competitions, and won many prestigious prizes. After completing schooling in Trivandrum, Ravisankar took a degree in Law from the Kerala Law Academy in Trivandrum, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management from Annamalai University. Though he started working as a lawyer, he soon realised that his long-term career revolved around his passion – music.
Career
He debuted in playback singingin 1999, when he recorded his first movie song, 'Ponnolappanthalil Velippennayente Swayamvararajakumari Varumo...' It was recorded for the move Saaphalyam, which was directed by G.S. Vijayan, and starred Suresh Gopi and Praveena. The song was written by Kaithapram and was composed by Sri M.G. Radhakrishnan. He is currently doing the program 'Raindrops' on Kairali tv along with Vrinda Menon Since then, he has come a long way in the playback singing field. His latest songs for 2007 are
Two songs for the movie Love Birds
A song written by Gireesh Puthenchery for the movie Devdaas, which is the remake of the Telugu movie Devdaas. An important break came to his career when he sang for the tune of M. Jayachandran in the movie Maanikyakallu, a Pritviraj movie directed by M. Mohan. The song "Chembarattikkamalitu kuppivala konjalittu.." with Shreya Ghoshal was widely accepted by the music lovers. Later he continued singing many songs for movies including Bombay Mittayi, Mr Bean, Garbhashreeman, and Innaana kalyanam.
Along with playback singing, later on in 2015 he started giving his own tunes to various projects including serials and albums, and did his debut music direction for a Malayalam movie called Crayons.
Apart from film music, Ravisankar has recorded several albums, and is active with concerts and other musical programmes. He has also provided vocals to title songs for several television serials, which have gained much acclaim. The notable ones are for the serials Uma, Vikramadityan, Dial 100, Tenali Raman, Abhirami and Jeeva Jalakom. His latest hit in this area is for Kudumbam, with the renowned Kaithapram – Johnson team. Currently, Ravisankar is anchoring Raindrops, a musical live entertainer in the Malayalam channel Kairali. This program is aired live every Friday from 4PM to 5PM Indian Standard Time. Ravishankar is married to Priyarenjini, a native of Kottayam who is working with Corporation Bank as the Legal manager, Trivandrum. The couple has a daughter, Bhadra, born in January 2007.
Discography
"Ponnolappanthalil" – Saaphalyam
"Ormakalil Nee" – Spandanam
"Vanakokilaaravam" – Spandanam
"Chemparathi Kammalittu" – Duet with Shreya Ghoshal for the movie Manikyakkallu
