Dhanush

Dhanush was born as Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja on 28 July 1983 to Tamil film director and producer, Kasthuri Raja, and his wife, Vijayalakshmi, in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Initially he wished to study Hotel Management and become a chef. However his elder brother, film director Selvaraghavan, pressured him to become an actor. Dhanush also has two sisters named Vimalageetha and Karthiga Karthik. Dhanush is a singer, generally for his own films. As a lyricist, he is often credited as "Poet-uh Dhanush" (Tanglish slang). He was introduced as a playback singer in Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan, by its composer Yuvan Shankar Raja and collaborated again with him in his brother Selvaraghavan's directorial, Pudhupettai. He sang further numbers in Selvaraghavan's films Aayirathil Oruvan and Mayakkam Enna; the former, which featured him alongside his then wife Aishwarya Rajinikanth.

"Why This Kolaveri Di" was released on YouTube in 2011 as part of the soundtrack to the film 3, the directorial debut of Aishwarya Dhanush. The song became the most-searched video in India. Anirudh Ravichander was the soundtrack composer for the film and Dhanush wrote much of the lyrics. He has also sung "No Problem" in the Kannada film Vajrakaya, which earned him a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer – Kannada, and "Thikka" in the Telugu film Thikka.