N. C. Karunya is an Indian playback singer, stage performer,

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

, and TV show host. His rise to fame was the reality show ''Indian Idol'' (Season 2) on

Sony Entertainment Television Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel, that was launched on 30 September 1995, and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony. SET India's ...

. After ''Indian Idol'' he became a recording artist by singing for more than 200 projects in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali but his mainstay has been Telugu, his mother tongue. He has also hosted various musical reality shows. In 2017, he launched his own YouTube channel and started releasing singles composed, written, and arranged by himself.

Early life and career

N.C.Karunya was born on 1 March 1986, to N. C. Madhu and P. Janaki in Hyderabad, India. He has been training in Carnatic classical under his Guru, "Vaaggeya Vidwanmani" Sri N.C. Murthy since the year 2000 and still continues to do so. He was the winner of Padutha Theeyaga Junior series, 1998. N.C. Karunya was a participant of the second season of Indian Idol. He was placed as a runner up to fellow contestant, Sandeep Acharya. Karunya hosted the reality show Little Champs on

Zee Telugu Zee Telugu is an Indian Telugu-language general entertainment pay television channel in India. It was launched on 12 September 2004 as ''Alpha Telugu'' and was rebranded as ''Zee Telugu'' on 18 May 2005. The channel is owned by Zee Entertainmen ...

Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Current ...

"Saptaswaralu", on ETV, ''Vijetha-Voice of Andhra'' on local TV with M. M. Keeravani as the judge and Super Singer 8, on Maa TV with again M. M. Keeravani and also Smt. K.S.Chitra as the judges.

Films

After the end of ''Indian Idol 2'', Karunya was called for an audition by

Vidhu Vinod Chopra Vidhu Vinod Chopra (born 5 September 1952) is an Indian film director, producer, editor, screenwriter, lyricist and actor. His well-known films as director are '' Parinda'' (1988), '' 1942: A Love Story'' (1994). He is also known for producing ...

for Lage Raho Munnabhai. He began his playback career by singing for

Sanjay Dutt Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 100 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though u ...

. Then he sang a song in

Jai Santoshi Maa ''Jai Santoshi Maa'' is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language devotional film directed by Vijay Sharma and written R. Priyadarshi. Santoshī Mā (also called Santoshi Mata) is the goddess of satisfaction. Usha Mangeshkar, sang the devotional songs for t ...

for

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is an Indian National Award and Filmfare Award winning musician, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film indus ...

. After that, he went to

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

to meet members of the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

film industry who rooted for him during "''Indian Idol"''. In that series of meetings when he met Jr. NTR , he was offered his first Telugu hit "Ekaantangaa unna" by NTR himself, a song composed by

Mani Sharma Mani may refer to: Geography * Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia * Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad * Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece * Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshina ...

, for the film ''Ashok''. After this song, he went on to record songs like "Orugalluke Pilla" from the film

Sainikudu ''Sainikudu'' () is a 2006 Indian Telugu-language political action drama film written and directed by Gunasekhar, with music composed by Harris Jayaraj. It stars Mahesh Babu and Trisha. Irrfan Khan, in his only South Indian film, plays the ant ...

, ''Enduko'' from

Chirutha ''Chirutha'' () is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language action film written and directed by Puri Jagannadh, and produced by C. Ashwini Dutt under the banner Vyjayanthi Movies. The film stars Ram Charan, Neha Sharma, Prakash Raj and Ashish Vidyarthi whi ...

, "123 Nenoka Kantri" from ''

Kantri ''Kantri'' is a 2008 Indian Telugu-language action film written and directed by Meher Ramesh, a protégé of director Puri Jagannadh and who had earlier worked on Kannada films. Jr. NTR, Hansika Motwani, and Tanisha Mukherjee star in the lead ...

'', ''Ammayi Kitiki Pakkana'' from

Maryada Ramanna ''Maryada Ramanna'' is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language action comedy drama film co-written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli. The film is produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni under Arka Media Works. The film stars Sunil, Saloni and Na ...

, ''Om Namo Siva Rudraya'' from

Khaleja ''Khaleja'' () is a 2010 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas. The film stars Mahesh Babu, Anushka Shetty and Prakash Raj, while Shafi , Sunil, Brahmanandam and Ali play supporting roles. The plo ...

, ''Oola Oolala Ala'' from

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, ''Vayyarala jabilli'' from

Pawan Kalyan Pawan Kalyan (born Konidela Kalyan Babu; 2 September is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and politician. His films are predominantly in Telugu cinema. Kalyan is the younger brother of actor-ex.politician Chiranjeevi, and made his debut in the 1996 ...

's Teenmar, "Andam andam" from Vetadu-Ventadu, composed by

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, starring

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, "Meher meher" from "

D for Dopidi ''D for Dopidi'' () is a 2013 Telugu-language heist comedy film directed by Siraj Kalla, starring Varun Sandesh, Sundeep Kishan, Naveen Polishetty, Rakesh and Melanie Kannokada. It was co-produced by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. and Telug ...

", "Suvvi Suvvaalamma" from the movie

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, two songs for "It's my love story" and many more. He was the voice behind the short film made by

Allu Arjun Allu Arjun (born 8 April 1982) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu films. One of the highest paid actors in India, Arjun is also known for his extraordinary dancing skills. He is a recipient of several awards, including six Filmfare Award ...

and director

Sukumar Bandreddi Sukumar (born 23 January 1970) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who works in Telugu cinema. He is known for his complex, multi-layered screenplays and for infusing grey shades in the character sketches of his pro ...

, ''I Am That Change''. Karunya was the youngest singer to be a part of the remake of the song "Mile sur mera tumhaara". It was remade in 2010 and released as "Phir mile sur" on republic day on Zoom TV.

Independent music

Karunya released his first Hindi album, the self-titled ''Karunya'', on 9 August 2008. The music was composed by Lesle Lewis and the video was directed by the sister of Madhu Sarkar. His second album was a light music album named Karunya's Vandebhaavagurum. He also released four singles. He released the song "O Priyathamaa" on Jun 9, 2017, "Prema Geethika" on August 10, 2017, "Maayarogam" on Apr 14, 2018, and "Karuninchele" on Aug 23, 2019. His music video for "O Priyathamaa" reached 1 million+ views on Youtube.

Live performance

Karunya has performed in numerous concerts in India plus concerts in America, performed in The

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Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and East Africa and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

Discography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karunya, N. C. 1986 births Living people Indian male playback singers Telugu playback singers Indian Idol participants Filmfare Awards South winners Singers from Hyderabad, India