Bengaluru: At a function held recently at the Banquet Hall of Vidhana Soudha in connection with the 131st birthday celebrations of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai honoured veteran singer S. Siddarth of Mysuru with ‘Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Award’ for conveying Dr. Ambedkar’s thoughts to the households in Karnataka.

The 82-year-old Siddarth, who  is basically from Ashoka-puram and now staying in Siddarthanagar, was honoured at a function organised by State Social Welfare Department where Department Minister Kota Srinivasa Poojary, PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil, MLAs Arvind Limbavali, Rizwan Arshad and others were also present.

Siddarth, son of Siddaiah and Maramma, was inclined towards music since childhood and used to get first prize in all the cultural programmes held at schools and colleges. Without any teacher and training of any kind, he learnt on his own the art of singing, writing lyrics and playing harmonium.

In his early days itself, he earned appreciation for singing a song written by himself about Dr.Ambedkar at Ashokapuram Park in the presence of senior politicians like late B. Rachaiah and V. Sreenivasa Prasad who lauded his talent.

Later on, he was given opportunity to sing at all big functions held in memory of Dr.Ambedkar. The cassette ‘Ambedkar’ which included songs sung, written and composed by Siddarth himself became very popular. In addition, he has brought out cassettes ‘Chitraranga,’ ‘Mahachetana’ and others, all his own creations.    

Siddarth had attracted public attention by playing harmonium in musical programmes of the calibre of Gaffoor, Mysuru Ananthaswamy, P. Kalinga Rao and others apart from singing songs along with them.  Some of the songs written and composed by him became popular film songs too.