TNI Bureau: Legendary playback singer Vani Jayaram breathed her last at her Haddows Road home in Chennai on Saturday. She was 78.

With a career spanning over five decades, the acclaimed singer sung over 10,000 songs in 19 languages including the very popular Hindi song ‘Bole re Papihara’.

The singer had a number of songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Odia, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri etc to her credit.

She won National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer thrice. She also received State awards from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat and Odisha.

“Megha barasila tupuru tupuru” from Sesa Srabana (1976), Ei Gaan’ra Moudamani Go from Gauri (1979), “Chikolika Bambalika” from Film Balidan (1978) are among the several superhits she gave Odia film industry (Ollywood).

National Award-winning legendary playback singer was announced to receive the Padma Bhushan – the third-highest civilian award in India recently.