Career
After working for a while for Leading Edge Systems, Shankar ventured into the field of music. He earned his first award as a playback singer in a Tamil movie, collaborating with A. R. Rahman and winning a National Film Award for his song in Kandukondain Kandukondain. A prominent star in the Kodambakkam film industry, he gained further recognition upon the release of his first music album, Breathless, in 1998. The title track of the album had been prepared in such a manner that it is sung without any break, so it appears to be sung in one breath and thus the title "Breathless". He later got into music direction and became a part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio, composing music for Hindi films.
Before his entire film music sojourn started, Shankar Mahadevan was part of the Indo-Swedish fusion jazz band Mynta.
He has sung in many films for A. R. Rahman, Anu Malik and other music directors, performing songs like "Urvashi Take It Easy" from Humse Hai Muqabla (1995), "I Love You" from Auzaar (1997), "Kay Sera Sera" from Pukar (2000) and many more songs in the nineties. Most of the songs sung by him in Hindi are composed by him (as part of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy). He has sung numerous songs in Tamil for a multitude of composers, ranging from veterans to newcomers. He has also sung in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and other regional languages. In Marathi he has sung for noted composers like Shridhar Phadke and Ajay-Atul.
He enjoyed a successful run with the fusion jazz band SILK with Louis Banks on keyboards, Sivamani on percussion, Sridhar Parthasarathy on mridangam and Karl Peters on bass guitar.
Shankar Mahadevan has also provided vocals for several songs by the band Remember Shakti, which features musicians including, Musician Zakir Hussain, Musician Chandan Sharma, Musician John McLaughlin, U. Srinivas and V. Selvaganesh. He was music director for the famous "School Chale Hum" song on Doordarshan.
He was a mentor on Zee TV's musical reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009.
He is a team captain, judge, and mentor on Star Plus's musical show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla for the team Shankar's Rockstars; his team won Music Ka Maha Muqqabala 2010.
In March 2009 he performed at Ragam 09, an intercollegiate cultural festival hosted by the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC) in Kerala.
In February 2010 he performed at Kuruksastra 10, an intercollege cultural festival hosted by the SASTRA University, Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.
In September 2008 and 2010 he performed at PULSE, India's Second largest Inter-college Festival at All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
In March 2011 he started the Shankar Mahadevan Academy. The Academy offers tutorials and virtual vocal courses in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, religious chanting, Indian folk music, and Bollywood songs.
Shankar was Invited by the UNESCO and the US state Dept to perform at UN general assembly hall for the finale of the International Jazz festival held on 30 April 2012.
As of 2012, Shankar is currently mentoring Zee TV's musical reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2012.
In 2013, Shankar, along with Ehsaan, Loy and his team, performed a 5 hour concert for Lok Biradari Prakalp in Nagpur. The show was received extremely positively and the fact that Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy did not accept money for the concert was greatly appreciated.
On February 07,2013,Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and his team performed at Day 2 Pro-Show of Riviera 2013 (Inter college Cultural Fest of VIT University).This was his third performance in the campus receiving a huge round of applause.
On March 17, 2013 he performed at Ragam 13, the annual intercollege cultural festival of National Institute of Technology, Calicut for the second time, his first time being in Ragam 2009.
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