Saisharan rose to prominence in 2011 after being crowned the winner of season 3 of Vijay TV's Airtel Super Singer, when he was a 21 year old engineering student.[3] Saicharan received training in Carnatic music prior to participating in the competition. He was previously a top 4 finalist in the debut season of the junior version of the show, Airtel Super Singer Junior. He auditioned for season 3 of the show, and participated in most of the main competition performance rounds. When he was eliminated from the competition by the permanent judges by half a mark, the decision was challenged by viewers. He subsequently qualified as a wildcard contestant, and re-entered the competition as a grand finalist after receiving the highest number of viewer votes.
Saicharan was crowned the winner of the competition, and was awarded an apartment by the show's sponsor Arun Excello. He was chosen by A. R. Rahman and D. Imman to sing in the 2012 films Godfather, Manam Kothi Paravai, and Saattai.
In 2012, Sai Sharan was formally introduced as a Tamilplayback singer.[5] He made his film debut co-singing "Dang Dang" in the movie Manam Kothi Paravai with Malavika, who was also a contestant in the music competition reality TV show, Airtel Super Singer 3.
