Kunal Ganjawala (born 14 April 1972) is an Indian playback singer whose songs are mostly featured in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

films. He has also sung in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

, Bengali and other official languages of India. Kunal began his career by singing jingles. He came to limelight in Hindi cinema with the song "Bheege Honth Tere" from the film ''

Murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

'' in 2004. It was his first biggest hit. The song earned him Zee Cine Award as Best Playback Singer in 2005. He came to limelight in Kannada cinema with the song "Neene Neene" from the film ''

Aakash Akasha or Akash (Sanskrit ' ) means space or sky or æther in traditional Indian cosmology, depending on the religion. The term has also been adopted in Western occultism and spiritualism in the late 19th century. In many modern Indo-Aryan l ...

'' in 2005.

Career

Ganjawala graduated from St. Peter's School, Maza Gaon, Mazagaon. Kunal wanted to be either a chartered accountant or an actor. Kunal admits that it was his parents' support which made him possible to become a singer. Kunal's sister is a Bharatnatyam exponent, while his father plays the harmonica. With his parents' support he took singing seriously and started believing that he can become a singer. Later, Ganjawala learned music from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan under the guidance of Sudhindra Bhaumick. His first singing assignment was a Ranjit Barot-composed jingle titled ''Doodh Doodh'' for the Operation Flood advertisement. Ganjawala has said that he was taken seriously by other music directors because he was working with Barot. Ganjawala's first break in Bollywood was ''Ab Ke Baras'' in 2002. Although the song did not mark him as a prominent singer, it earned him many offers. Thereafter he sang in many movies, such as '' Saathiya'' (2002), ''

Indian Babu ''Indian Babu'' is a 2003 Indian Bollywood film directed by Lawrence D'Souza and produced by Surjit Pandher. It stars Jaz Pandher and Gurleen Chopra in pivotal roles. Cast also includes Johnny Lever, Alok Nath and Mukesh Rishi. Plot Dil (Gurlee ...

'' (2003), '' Paisa Vasool'' (2004), ''

Khakee ''Khakee'' (English translation: The Uniform) is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir action thriller film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and written by Santoshi and Sridhar Raghavan. The story revolves around an Indian police team on a mi ...

'' (2004), ''

Rudraksh ''Rudraksha'' (IAST: ') refers to a stonefruit, the dried stones of which are used as prayer beads by Hindus (especially Shaivas), as well as by Buddhists and Sikhs. When they are ripe, ''rudraksha'' stones are covered by an inedible blue out ...

'' (2004), '' Dhoom'' (2004) and '' Meenaxi'' (2004). His breakthrough hit was "Bheege Hont Tere", from the film ''

'', which won the 2005

Zee Cine Award Best Playback Singer – Male Zee is the phonetic pronunciation of the letter Z in American English ("zed" in Commonwealth English). Zee may also refer to: People *Zee (徐), a Wu Chinese surname, an equivalent of Xu * Anthony Zee (b. 1945), Chinese-American physicist * Ch ...

and

IIFA Best Male Playback Award The IIFA Best Male Playback Award is chosen by the viewers and the winner is announced at the ceremony. Arijit Singh and Sonu Nigam holds the record for most wins in this category; Singh also holds the record for most nominations. Udit Narayan ...

. Ganjawala entered the Kannada film industry in 2005. His very first song in

, ''Neene Neene'' composed by music director R P Patnaik and written by

K. Kalyan K Kalyan (born 1 January 1975) is an Indian songwriter and music composer known for his works in Kannada film industry. He is also called as "Premakavi. Career K.Kalyan entered the film industry at the age of 17 as a Music director cum lyrici ...

for the movie '' Akash'', was a hit of the year. His big break in South India came in 2006 from the Kannada blockbuster film ''

Mungaru Male ''Mungaru Male'' () is a 2006 Indian Kannada-language romantic drama film co-written and directed by Yogaraj Bhat, and produced by E. Krishnappa. It stars Ganesh, Pooja Gandhi and Anant Nag. The film is believed to have shaped and strengthened t ...

''. His song "Onde Ondu Sari" written by Kaviraj and composed by music director

Mano Murthy Mano Murthy is an Indian musician and composer in the Kannada film industry. His is best known for his songs in ''Mungaru Male'', one of the biggest hits in the Kannada industry. Before moving onto becoming a composer, he was an entrepreneur, h ...

became the biggest hit of the year. It created records, including for highest sales and downloads. Popular singer Sonu Nigam who is also known in South India for his hundreds of Kannada songs, recently composed a theme song for the Karnataka Bulldozer's team in the Celebrity Cricket League. With lyrics by Sowmya Raoh, this was sung by the trio of Ganjawala, Nigam and Raoh. Ganjawala has sung nearly 450 Kannada Songs thus far. He has participated in ''

Sa Re Ga Ma Saregama India Ltd. (Saregama refers to the first four notes of the Indian musical scale); formerly known as The Gramophone Company Of India Ltd. is India's oldest music label owned by the RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group of companies. The company i ...

'', an Indian singing talent competition on Zee TV (now ''Sa Re Ga Ma Pa'') when it was hosted by Nigam. He was a judge on ''

Amul Star Voice of India Star Voice of India is an Indian television singing competition that premiered on 18 May 2007 and ended on 24 November 2007 on StarPlus. The show was directed by Gajendra Singh, creator of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa series, and produced by Urban Brew ...

'', another singing competition on Star TV, together with Shreya Ghoshal and Pritam. Since then Ganjawala has worked for many music directors like Anu Malik, Anand–Milind, Nadeem-Shravan, Pritam,

Himesh Reshammiya Himesh Reshammiya (born 23 July 1973) is an Indian playback singer, music director, songwriter, film & music producer and actor in Hindi cinema. He started his career as music director in the film '' Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya'' in 1998 and made ...

Ismail Darbar Ismail Darbar is an Indian film score composer, instrumentalist, violinist and music director. Career Ismail Darbar is from Surat, Gujarat. He worked for several years as a session violinist for leading music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kal ...

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy () is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and English. Amongst t ...

, Anand Raj Anand, Rajesh Roshan, Viju Shah, Aadesh Shrivastava, Roop Kumar Rathod, Daboo Malik, and Sanjeev-Darshan. Kunal recently sang for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Saawariya''. His numbers from the films ''Maashah Alaah'' and ''Pari'' were running top on the chart. Other than

and

, he has also sung in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

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 ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...

and Sindhi languages. His song "Oh my love" from Bengali language movie '' Amanush'' Jeet Gannguli and "Channa Ve Ghar aa jaa" from a

album ''Channa Ve'' by DJ Anit & Music director Santokh Singh was also a success. In 2007, he participated in a concert tour in North America, called The Incredibles, also featuring

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the ...

, Nigam and

Kailash Kher Kailash Kher (born 7 July 1973) is an Indian music composer and singer. He sings songs with a music style influenced by Indian folk music and Sufi music. He was inspired by the classical musicians' Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Pandit Hridaynath Ma ...

. On 3 April 2010 he performed at RECSTACY, the annual cultural event of NIT DURGAPUR. On 26 November 2010 he performed at SDM UTSAV, the mega fest event of

SDMCET Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College of Engineering and Technology (also called SDMCET) is an autonomous private engineering college located in Dharwad in the state of Karnataka, India. It was established in 1979 and is affiliated under ...

. In February 2018, he recorded India's first jazzy ghazal Dhatt, for the Indian recording label Indian Talkie. The song was composed by

Sumit Stackable Unified Module Interconnect Technology (SUMIT) is a connector between expansion buses independent of motherboard form factor. Boards featuring SUMIT connectors are usually used in "stacks" where one board sits on top of another. It was pub ...

and written by Zeest and is a blend of two completely different genres,

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and Ghazal. The song was released on

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

2018 to over 300 music streaming platforms, including Saavn,

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

, Deezer, and Wynk Music. The Lyrical Making Video was released on Indian Talkie's official YouTube Channel, featuring Ganjawala and Sumit and his team.

Personal life

In 2005, he married fellow singer

Gayatri Iyer Gayatri Ganjawala () is an Indian playback singer, primarily in Bollywood. She landed up with the part of Princess Anjuli in the West End of London musical production of M. M. Kaye's ''The Far Pavilions'', which opened in the summer of 2007. ...

. They performed the title track for STAR One's ''

Antakshari Antakshari, also known as Antyakshari (अंताक्षरी ) is a spoken parlor game played in India. Each contestant sings the first verse of a song (often Classical Hindustani or Bollywood songs) that begins with the consonant of Hin ...

'' together. He is a staunch devotee of

Sri Sathya Sai Baba Sathya Sai Baba (born Ratnakaram Sathyanarayana Raju; 23 November 192624 April 2011) was an Indian guru. At the age of fourteen he claimed that he was the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba, and left his home to serve his devotees. Sai Baba's b ...

Awards and recognition

Kunal Ganjawala has received the following recognitions: , - , rowspan= 3 , 2005 , rowspan= 5 , ''

'' ,

Filmfare Awards The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Hindi-language film industry of India.Al The Filmfare ceremony is one of the most famous film events in India. The awards were first introduced by th ...

" Best Male Playback Singer"
" RD Burman Award for New Music Talent"
''(For: Bheege Honth Tere)'' , rowspan=5 , - ,

IIFA Awards The International Indian Film Academy Awards, popularly known as IIFA, is an annual awards ceremony for Bollywood. Produced by Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the winners of the awards are decided by fans, who vote online for th ...

" Best Male Playback"
''(For: Bheege Honth Tere)'' , - , Zee Cine Awards " Best Playback Singer – Male"
''(For: Bheege Honth Tere)'' , - , rowspan= 2 , 2006 , Star Guild Awards " Best Male Playback Singer"
''(For: Bheege Honth Tere)'' , - , Bollywood Movie Awards "

Bollywood Movie Award – Best Playback Singer Male The winners are listed below:- See also * Bollywood Movie Awards The Bollywood Movie Awards was an annual film award ceremony held between 1999 and 2007 in Long Island, New York, United States, celebrating films and actors from the Bollywo ...

"
''(For: Bheege Honth Tere)'' , - , 2009 , '' Mussanjemaatu'' ,

56th Filmfare Awards South The 56th Filmfare Awards South ceremony honored its selection of the best 2008 in film, South Indian films of 2008 and was held on Friday, 31 July 2009, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, India. Nominations The nominees for the 56th Filmf ...

" Best Male Playback Singer"
''(For: Kaddalu Mansana)'' ,

Discography

Hindi

Non-film

Kannada

Bengali

Tamil

Telugu

Marathi

Punjabi

Malayalam

Odia

Urdu

Assamese

Tulu

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ganjawala, Kunal Living people Indian male playback singers Kannada playback singers Bollywood playback singers Sa Re Ga Ma Pa participants Musicians from Mumbai Elphinstone College alumni Indian Hindus 1972 births Filmfare Awards winners International Indian Film Academy Awards winners Zee Cine Awards winners