The Singapore Identity
~ Journey to Finding our Roots ~
A closer look at...
Local Talents
1. Udaya Soundari
Udaya Soundari is an actress-host in Vasantham. Udaya got her break in the local television industry in 2007 as a contestant on reality TV singing competition ‘Vasantham Star’, in which she made it to the top 10. She then tried her hand at acting by taking on a small role in the Vasantham thriller ‘Mudivu’ in 2008. She also hosted the dance competition ‘Dhool’ alongside Vadi PVSS in 2008, which got her recognised as a host.
Since then, she has acted in and hosted a variety of shows aired on Vasantham, including hosting infotainment show ‘Neenga Readiya’ (2012) and travel show ‘Rayil Sneham’ (2011), as well as starring in family drama ‘Riya’ (2011) and crime thriller ‘Savithri’ (2011). In 2014, she made history by being the first person to win three awards in one year at Pradhana Vizha. She won the titles for Best Actress, Best Host (Info-Ed) and Most Popular Female Personality, but missed out on her fourth nomination for Best Host (Variety).
2. Vadi PVSS
Vadi PVSS has appeared in numerous award-winning Vasantham Central TV programmes hosting, acting and even singing in these programmes. He also writes, produces and directs programmes for Vasantham.
He has written and directed a segment for the critically acclaimed current affairs programme ‘Yaen’. He was the co-director of the 5 part tele-series Macbeth in Literary Tamil produced by Pixel Productions, which was nominated for ‘Best Cultural Programme’ for Pradhana Vizha 2003. He also conceptualized, wrote and directed some episodes of the first Tamil cartoon series ‘Vigadavadi’. He wrote another tele-series ‘Savithri’ which became a cult classic among mature Singapore viewers garnering the most number of nominations in Pradhana Vizha.
Vadi is also a regular host, hosting hugely popular ‘Dhool’ in 2003 and 2008. He also wrote and hosted several episodes of the docudrama series ‘NC16’ in 2011. He hosted the hugely popular second season of the ‘Enna Nadakkuthu’, which garnered him his Best Host nomination in Pradhana Vizha 2012.
Vadi is also an actor, where the role he played in ‘Thiruvalluvan’ tele-series garnered him his second Best Actor award in Pradhana Vizha in 2012. Having appeared in a M1 TV commercial in English, which incidentally won the Mediacorp’s Viewer’s Choice Gold Award 2008, Vadi was made his way into the English Media. Vadi appeared in a 13 part tele-series entitled ‘Calefare’. Vadi has since also appeared in ‘The Pupil’, ‘The Noose’, ‘Maggie and Me’ and ‘We Are Singaporeans’.
3. Shabir
Shabir is an award winning singer-songwriter, record producer, music composer and performer in Vasantham. He is the winner of the inaugural singing competition ‘Vasantham Star’ in 2005. Shabir produced ‘Singai Naadu’, the National Day Parade 2012 Tamil song that received rave reviews and a liking from PM Lee Hsien Loong.
Shabir remains one of the leading recording artiste in Singapore with a strong fan-base in the region having released three albums to date 'Alaipayuthey', 'TraffiQ' and 'Swasam-Scents of Prose'. Shabir's music is known to be an eclectic concoction of various genres and influences that includes pop, electro and world music. Shabir's lyrical style consists of wordplay, metaphor and he often experiments with cadence. Shabir even sang two songs in the Indian film ‘Vathikutchi’.
Shabir also tried his hands in acting. In November 2010, Shabir took on a lead role in the 72-episode blockbuster crime series ‘Vettai: Pledged to Hunt’ which earned him the Best Actor Award at the Pradhana Vizha 2011 awards. Shabir also collaborated with Tamil rap icon Emcee Jesz to create the official soundtrack for ‘Vettai’. The song went on to become the most popular Tamil soundtrack in local television history.