P Jayachandran celebrates his 77th birthday

Veteran

singer P Jayachandran

, who is lovingly called ‘bhaavagaayakan’ by Malayalam music lovers, celebrates his 77th birthday today.

The vocalist, who has sung more than 15,000 songs across various languages, continues to be active on the playback singing front, lending his voice to many up-and-coming music directors, seasoned composers and more.

‘Jimikki Kammal’ singer

Renjith Unni

even dedicated a video, in which he sings the track ‘

Kollayile Thannai

Veithu,’ from the movie ‘Kadhalan,’ sung by the veteran and composed by A R Rahman. The song was penned by Vairamuthu. The song is a melody that features Prabhudeva and Nagma, the lead actors of the film.

Renjith captioned the video, in which he can be seen attempting a cover version of the song, thus: Happy Birthday to our legend "

Bhaavagayakan

" P.Jayachandran sir... Wishing u good health, happiness and prosperity… (sic) Many others like Sujatha Mohan and more were also spotted wishing the singer, who shares his birthday with yet another gifted vocalist – music director Shankar Mahadevan.

P Jayachandran was also in the news a while ago, when a photo in which he flexes his muscles had gone viral. The picture had also sparked the interest of many as the singer looked quite healthy and muscular, at this age. Jayachandran had told us about the same, “My friends, relatives from the US, and even Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar called me, asking ‘Entha ithu Jayetta? Did anyone morph the photo of your face on the body of a muscleman?’ I wasn’t expecting these reactions.”