Ranjini was born on 4 April 1984 in
Chennai to Film producer Babu Jose and singer and bank employee C. K. Jayalakshmi. She was brought up in
Chennai, moving to
Kochi after a few years. Ranjini did her schooling in three different schools, Sacred Heart Church Park in
Chennai, MET Public School in Perumbavoor and Bhavans Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara. She considers her school life to be the most comfortable time of her life, where she grew up listening to various musicians like
Ilayaraja,
S. Janaki and even international artists like
ABBA,
Boney M and
Michael Jackson. Coming from an artistically inclined family, she always had an interest in performing arts, considering her teachers to be her biggest encouragement. Ranjini would visit film shootings and recordings with her father and mother which gave her a lot of insight into how the industry works. When Ranjini was in her 9th grade of school, she became a part of the famed
Cochin Chorus Troupe, traveling with them and performing the song Unaru Unaru, by
S. Janaki. One of her music teachers was Film fare Award-nominated lyricist Santosh Varma. When she was in 12th-grade, she was called for the recording of her first movie,
Melevaryathe Malakhakkuttikal directed by
Thulasidas, with music composed by
Berny-Ignatius, lyrics by Ramesan Nair. She sang with the National Award-winning singer
K. S. Chithra, and Santosh Kesav. Since then, Ranjini's career took an upward leap, with her singing in over 200 movies across five languages. She made her
Tamil debut with the movie
Chanakya, her
Hindi debut in the movie
Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey and her
Telugu debut with the song Chiru Chilake, by
Sharreth, from the movie
Naa Bangaaru Talli. She has also acted in three
Malayalam films, the 2009 movie
Red Achilles starring
Mohanlal, the 2010 movie Drona starring
Mammootty, and the 2017 movie
Basheerinte Premalekhanam. She has sung for and along with big artists such as
Ilayaraja,
M Jayachandran,
Alphons,
Jassie Gift,
Deepak Dev,
Vishal Bharadwaj,
Shankar Mahadevan, and many more.\ In November 2017, Ranjini Jose founded the five-piece band Eka. A longtime dreamchild of hers, the group consists of 5 members, with Ranjini herself on vocals. They do multiple genres, such as
Hindustani,
Carnatic music,
Folk music,
Indian pop, and Rock music. They include filmy vernaculars, and also don't shy away from incorporating a few foreign languages into their music. The name of the band stands for something that Ranjini believes spiritually, – "It comes from the mantra, 'Ekam Eva advatheeyam' which says that there is only one power." In September 2022, Ranjini performed at Campion School Auditorium,
Bhopal. Bhopalites enjoyed the
multi genre songs that the singer sang. She performed with her band 'Eka' == Personal life ==