Vasudevan Nair (15 June 1944 – 20 February 2011), known as Malaysia Vasudevan was a Tamil playback singer and actor in the Tamil film industry.
Malaysia Vasudevan's parents were from Palakkad. In the early years of the last century, Chattu Nair of Ottappalam and Ammalu of Polpulli, along with their respective families migrated to Malaysia in search of a livelihood. Vasudevan's mother is the second wife of his father. They became labourers in the rubber estates in Rajaghiri estate, Kuala Selangor. After a few years, Chattu Nair and Ammalu became husband and wife in an arranged marriage. Vasudevan was born on 15 June 1944 as their eighth and youngest child. Even though he was a Malayalee, as was the case with the majority of contemporary South Indian migrants to Malaysia then, his surroundings in Malaysia was dominated by the Tamil language and culture. As such, Tamil became his language of choice, at school and at home.
Chattu Nair was musically inclined and all his children grew up with a natural ability to sing and appreciate music. Malaysia Vasudevan had once said that all his family members, except his mother Ammalu, were singers. Chattu Nair used to entertain the estate labourers by singing. He first started learning music from his father and later on, his brother taught him. Vasudevan started singing on stage when he was eight. Vasudevan was also interested in acting.
When Vasudevan grew up, he attached himself to Tamil drama troupes in Malaysia as an actor and singer. The producers of one of his plays Ratha Paei, wanted to make it into a film. Vasudevan came with the group to Chennai and acted in the film Raththa Paei. He even sang a song for the film under the baton of G. K. Venkatesh, for whom Ilaiyaraaja was working as the assistant.
