Karunya music profile

All's Well that Ends Well

He narrowly missed being this year's Indian Idol.
Karunya, as he is popularly known, is not too heartbroken.
After all, he is well on his way to making it big in a Munnabhai sequel.
Without even trying, he has got a godfather in director Vidhu Vinod Chopra
who seems dedicated to making Karunya a star.

For Karunya, reaching the finals of the 'Indian Idol' contest was pre-destined. The Hyderabad-born youth enthralled the audience with numbers sung by singers ranging from Manna Dey to Sonu Nigam seemingly effortlessly. He earned raves from judges Farah Khan, Anu Malik and Sonu Nigam. The audience was with him all the way. And all this, at 19. Was he very disappointed when he lost? Karunya declares he was expecting to lose. When he saw the support for his rival Sandeep, he simply thought about the positive side of losing out. Everything happens for the best, he says.

He has never recorded a song before and is excited about his first assignment - as a playback singer to the 'Munnabha' sequel. He has sung a duet, 'Aane chaar aane bache hai...' with Shreya Ghoshal after which he got opportunities in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil. Things are going great guns for Nallan Chakratanthula Karunya, which is, by the way, his full name.

Karunya was born into a musically-inclined family but he is the first in his family to become a professional singer. His family members play various musical instruments and love classical music but none have used their talent professionally. Singing in different languages came very naturally to Karunya even as a boy (which he actually still is!) He enjoyed every kind of music, including Western. In preparation for 'Indian Idol', he trained under Bhavdeep Jaipurwale in Mumbai, who was also training the other contestants.

While the dream of most contestants and finalists is to release their own album, Karunya is taking it easy by concentrating on his playback singing. He would love to do an album if it appeals to his creativity. For a person so young, he seems surprisingly untouched by fame - as yet.

Karunya is doing his final year in Electrical and Chemical Engineering. He is particular that he will sing only quality songs considering that he chose challenging classical numbers doing the contest. And he wants to sing in his own style. His dream is to sing every genre of Indian music and become an international star. All he wants, he says, is to be known as a great singer and nothing else. For a person so obviously blessed with talent, that should not be difficult.