Kalamandalam Hyderali (5 September 1946 – 5 January 2006) was one of the best Kathakali singers of his generation, and the first non-Hindu artiste to make a mark in the four-century-old classical dance-drama from Kerala in south India.

Hyderali, along with Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri and Venmani Haridas, was instrumental in remoulding the aesthetics of Kathakali music and making it more popular.

Hyderali, suave and soft-spoken, nurtured the wish to see Lord Krishna in real life, but had to occasionally suffer professional humiliation on religious grounds, as entry to temples (where a chunk of Kathakali shows finds stage) in Kerala is barred for non-Hindus.

But, just as his career was peaking, a road accident at Mullurkara near his hometown, while he was on his way to his alma mater driving a car, claimed the musician's life on 5 January 2006.

[9] Hyderali's music, basically built on a throat profile that sounds more upcountry (like Hindustani classical or Ghazal), seem to live on—at least in parts in the next couple of generations of Kathakali musicians.