Kumar Sanu (alias Kedarnath Bhattacharya, born in Kolkata) is a leading Indian Bollywood playback singer.^[1] He was awarded the Filmfare Best Male Playback Award over five consecutive years. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2009.^[2]

Early life[link]

Kumar Sanu's father Pashupati Bhattacharya was a vocalist and composer. He trained Sanu as a singer and tabla player. After getting a degree in commerce from Calcutta University, Sanu began performing publicly in 1979, singing at shows and restaurants around Calcutta. He modeled his singing style after Bollywood singer Kishore Kumar.^[3] Later he developed his own singing style.^[3]

Career[link]

In 1987, music director and singer Jagjit Singh offered Sanu the chance to sing in the Hindi film Aandhiyan. Sanu then relocated to Mumbai, where Kalyanji-Anandji gave him chance to sing in the film Jaadugar. Kalyanji-Anandji suggested that he change his name from Kedar Nath Bhattacharya to Kumar Sanu.^[3]

Sanu started off singing Jagjit Singh's film songs, and went on to work with composers including Naushad, Ravindra Jain, Hridayanath Mangeshkar, Pt.R K Razdan, Kalyanji Anandji, and Usha Khanna.

For the 1990 film Aashiqui, music directors Nadeem-Shravan got Sanu to sing all but one of the songs which included "Ek Sanam Chahiye", "Tu meri zindagi hain", "Nazar Ke Saamne", "Jaane Jigar Jaaneman", "Ab Tere Bin Jee Lenge Hum" and "Dheere Dheere Se". He won the first of his record five consecutive Filmfare awards as Best Male Playback Singer. His next Filmfare Awards came for songs in the movies Saajan (1991), Deewana (1992), Baazigar (1993), and 1942: A Love Story (1994).

Sanu often collaborated with Nadeem-Shravan. Some of their collaborations include songs in movies like Aashiqi (1990), Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin (1991), Sadak (1991), Saajan (1991), Deewana (1992), Dil Ka Kya Kasoor (1992), Kal Ki Awaz (1992), Shreeman Aashique (1993), Salami (1993), Damini: Lightning (1993), Dilwale (1994), Agni Sakshi (1996), Raja Hindustani (1996), Jeet (1996), Pardes (1997), among others.

In a career spanning two decades he has sung with composers including R.D. Burman, Anand-Milind, Anu Malik, Jatin-Lalit, Nadeem-Shravan, Himesh Reshammiya, Ismail Darbar, Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Rajesh Roshan, Sajid-Wajid, Viju Shah, Uttam Singh for Dushman, Raam Laxman, Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, Anand Raj Anand, Aadesh Shrivastava, Vishal-Shekhar, M. M. Keeravani & Vishal Bharadwaj.

He has also created music for Indian films and also produced the Bollywood film, Utthaan. Currently Kumar Sanu team up with Rakesh Bhhatia and together they produced Hindi feature film based on the four street children of Mumbai. All four children are doing shoe- polish on railway platform in order to earn their daily bread and butter. Mithun Chakraborty is acting in his movie as a lead role. Recently Kumar Sanu has sang for epic Bengali film Hason Raja, which directed by UK-based filmmaker Ruhul Amin.

Sanu was in the panel of judges on Sony TV for Waar Parriwar, a reality show based on the bringing together of a singing gharana (family of singers) and on Zee Bangla TV in a music reality show called Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Vishwa Sera.

Awards[link]

• 2009: Padma Shri: India's 4th highest civilian honour given by Government of India.

Filmfare Awards[link]

Won[link]

Nominated[link]

Star Screen Award[link]

Notable Bollywood Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Kumar Sanu at the Internet Movie Database