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Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10: Eminent Carnatic vocalist and playback singer K J Yesudas, who has enthralled music aficionados across the world with his profound and mellifluous voice for the last six decades, turned 80 on Friday.

People from various walks of life, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and luminaries of music and film world besides socio-cultural personalities, wished the legendary singer, popularly called as 'gana gandharvan' (the celestial singer) by his fans, on his birthday.

Regional newspapers came out with special pages and television channels with exclusive programmes as a tribute to the singer, who has recorded over 80,000 songs in various genres in almost all languages of India including about 25,000 film songs, Carnatic bhajans and devotional songs.

Besides Indian languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Odia, his voice gave life to songs in Arabic, English, Latin, and Russian during a career spanning over six decades.

Yesudas, whom the country had honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 2017, is the recipient of eight national awards, 25 Kerala state awards, five state awards of Tamil Nadu and four of Andhra Pradesh.

"On the special occasion of his 80th birthday, greetings to the versatile K J Yesudas Ji. His melodious music and soulful renditions have made him popular across all age groups. He has made valuable contributions to Indian culture. Wishing him a long and healthy life," Modi tweeted.

The Left veteran also shared a photo of the veteran singer along with the tweet.

Meanwhile, Yesudas this morning visited the Mookambika Temple at Kollur in Udupi district of Karnataka along with his family, a practice he has been following for the last four decades.

Draped in the traditional Kerala style kasavu mundu and shawl, 'dasettan', as he is known among his hardcore fans cutting across ages, Yesudas offered prayers along with his wife Prabha and sons and performed special poojas at the Goddess Saraswathi temple.

Hundreds of music buffs gathered at the shrine to wish the octogenarian singer.

Considered as one of the best playback singers in the country, Yesudas had begun his music career in the tinsel town with the Malayalam song "Jathi bhedam matha dwesham" in the year 1961 and sang in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films among other languages.

Yesudas's foray into Bollywood saw him recording various memorable hits, including "Jab Deep Jale Aana" and "Gori Tera Gaon Bada Pyara".

Mumbai, Jul 22: Actor Sara Ali Khan on Wednesday treated her fans to an extremely adorable family picture from a Holi celebration during her childhood days.

"Mother, Daughter- Iggy Potter. Riot of colours with Water Slaughter. Mommy so young I almost forgot her. Gulaal we threw, off-guard we caught her. But it was healthy fun with no totter. After all she's mother dearest- the OG Fautor," the 'Simmba' star poetically captioned the adorable Holi throwback picture on Instagram.

In the picture, Sara was seen coloured in Gulaal along with her mother Amrita Singh and brother Ibrahim Ali Khan. Sara looked loveable in the childhood picture as she wore an endearing smile with her neatly tied hair in a ponytail. Mom Amrita was seen smiling along with the kids, while she held little Ibrahim as he smiled and posed for the camera.

The post on the photo-sharing platform garnered more than 6 lakh likes within an hour of being posted.

Meanwhile, on the film front, Sara Ali Khan is awaiting the release of her latest comedy-drama 'Coolie No.1' with Varun Dhawan.

Srinagar, Feb 7: Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a stay on the release of the movie 'Shikara' which is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.

The film which hit theatres today has Vidhu Vinod Chopra at the helm and narrates the story of the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 that forced lakhs to flee their homeland almost overnight following a genocidal campaign by militants.

Shot primarily in the Valley, the movie is being promoted mainly as a journey of love between the lead couple.