Kunal Ganjawala

Kunal Ganjawala
Kunal Ganjawala in 2012
Background information
Born	(1972-04-14) 14 April 1972 (age 44) Pune, Maharashtra, India
Occupation(s)	Singer
Years active	2002–present

Kunal Ganjawala (born 14 April 1972) is a popular playback singer whose songs are mostly featured in Hindi and Kannada films. He has also sung in Marathi, Bengali and other official languages of India. Kunal began his career by singing jingles. He came to limelight in Hindi with the song "Bheege Honth Tere" from the film Murder 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 with the song "Neene Neene" from the film Akash in 2005.

As a child, Kunal Ganjawala never thought of becoming singer. He didn't know until college that he could sing. Since then he started singing at every college festivals and won many intra- and inter-college competitions.

Ganjawala graduated from St. Peter's School, 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 Bharat Natyam 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 (2003), Paisa Vasool (2004), Khakee (2004), Rudraksh (2004), Dhoom (2004) and Meenaxi (2004). His breakthrough hit was "Bheege Hont", from the film Murder, which won the 2005 Zee Cine Award Best Playback Singer - Male and IIFA Best Male Playback Award.

Ganjawala entered the Kannada film industry in 2005. His very first song in Kannada, Neene Neene composed by music director R P Patnaik and written by K. Kalyan 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. His song "Onde Ondu Sari" written by Kaviraj and composed by music director Mano Murthy became the biggest hit of the year. It created records, including for highest sales and downloads.