Biddu's family originally hailed from Kodagu in the Karnataka state of India, but he was born and grew up in the city of Bangalore, where he attended the Bishop Cotton Boys' School. He carries the clan name of Chendrimada. In the 1960s, as a youth, he developed a liking for the then new pop and rock music, as he said in a media interview, listening to pop hits played on the shortwave radio band of Radio Ceylon of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which was then popular throughout Asia. He learnt to play the guitar and in his late teens and early twenties he frequented the clubs and bars of Bangalore, and soon started a music band called 'Trojans' with a few friends, including Ken Gnanakan, who later went on to start an NGO called "ACTS". The band was India's first English-speaking band, and found success playing cover versions of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Trini Lopez and hits of other Western stars of the day, in the clubs of Bangalore and also other Indian cities, such as Calcutta and Bombay. The band, however, split since Ken Gnanakan wanted to pursue higher studies, leaving Biddu alone as the sole member of the band. He played under the name 'Lone Trojan' and was popular as an act at a night club called "Venice" in Bombay.