ChinmayiTamil Playback Singer – Song Lyrics & Movies

She debuted as a composed with a short lullaby titled Laali, which she also sang and released as part of Instagram's #1MinMusic.

She is the founder and CEO of a translation services company Blue Elephant, a skincare company importing K-beauty to India, Skinroute (formerly Isle Of Skin), and a medi-spa Deep Skin Dialogues in Chennai and Hyderabad.

She is often credited as Chinmayee and was credited as Indai Haza which means "Angel of Music" (by composer A. R. Rahman for one of his songs - I Miss You da). She is also a social activist often raising her voice against issues faced by women and has been one of the faces of the second wave of #MeToo movement in India.

Chinmayi was born in Bombay, Maharashtra. She was raised by her mother Padmhasini Thirumalai from the age of 1. She underwent formal training in Carnatic classical music from her mother from a very young age (3–4). She later decided to switch over to Hindustani classical music. She received the CCRT Scholarship for Young Talent for Carnatic Music from the Government of India at the age of 10. She won the gold medal from All India Radio for Ghazals in 2000 and the silver medal for Hindustani Classical Music in 2002 earning the B Grade for both, from All India Radio She learned German as a language in the Max Mueller Bhavan, French from Alliance Francaise in Chennai and completed certification courses from NIIT and SSI in web design. She homeschooled post her 10th grade, and she held jobs with both Sify and studentconcepts.org.

Chinmayi has a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Madras and is currently pursuing a degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine from Canada. She has learned Odissi in the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra style for over 10 years under the tutelage of Kshama Rau and learned Kathak, Sarangi and Tabla briefly. Chinmayi is a polyglot; apart from Tamil and Telugu she also speaks, English, Hindi, German and French fluently, and has a working knowledge of Spanish, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Punjabi.

She participated and won the singing show of Sun TV, Saptasawarangal, following which she was introduced by singer Srinivas to film composer A. R. Rahman. Chinmayi's playback singing career began with her performance of Rahman's "Oru Dheivam Thanta Poove" for the film Kannathil Muthamittal. After a couple of years of singing exclusively for Tamil, Telugu, Tulu and Malayalam films, she made her Bollywood debut in Mangal Pandey: The Rising with the song "Holi Re". About a year later, she garnered more recognition with her performances of "Tere Bina" and "Mayya" in the movie Guru. In 2007, the song "Beda Beda" marked her first venture into Kannada playback singing. She has since received critical acclaim for songs such as "Sahana Saaral", "Vaarayo Vaarayo", "Kilimanjaro", "Sara Sara", "Asku Laska", "Kaathale Kaathale" and Muththa Mazhai. She received her second break in Bollywood with three consecutive songs "Titli" from Chennai Express, "Zehnaseeb" from Hasee Toh Phasee, and "Main Rang Sharbaton Ka" from Phata Poster Nikla Hero. She then received critical acclaim for the song "Mast Magan" from 2 states, which she had sung along with Arijit Singh. She has also sung in Marathi language in movies such as "Sairat". Chinmayi as of 2020 had to her credit over 2,000 songs in 10 different languages. In 2025, Chinmayi had one of the biggest breakthroughs of her career, and also a re-entry to the Tamil industry with her performance of the song "Muththa Mazhai" from the Thug Life audio launch which went viral. Her live performance video uploaded on YouTube by Saregama Audio Label reached over 100M+ views, garnering widespread critical acclaim and an urge to include it in the official soundtrack by the audiences. Following this, "Muththa Mazhai (Reprise)" was officially released on music streaming platforms and included in the film's official soundtrack a day prior to its release. Additionally, as of the end of 2025, her song "Tere Bina" with A. R. Rahman continues to be in the top 10 streamed songs across India on Spotify.