THE MELODY KING........KUNAL GANJAWALA

Kunal Ganjawala was born on 12^th August in Mumbai. He comes from a family who has deep roots in Arts & Music. His father is a trained Harmonica player and his sister is exponent of Bharatnatyam.As a child, Kunal 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. Asper his statement :

“I was not even a bathroom singer. I began singing only when I was caught by my seniors as an 8th standard students in St Peters School. I was passing by them whistling a tune when a few of them caught hold of me and commanded, 'Sing a song'. I was shocked. I said I never sang in my life. They said, "Dont lie!" When he can whistle tunes so well, why can't he sing? They caught hold of my neck saying, they would throttle me if I didn't. With great difficulty I sang "Nazar ke samne" (Aashiqui) and "Ek din bik jayega" (Dharam Karam). They spared me then but made me sing in college festivals later.”

Kunal 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.

Later Kunal learned music from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan under the guidance of Sudhindra Bhaumick. He has participated in “Sa Re Ga Ma”, an Indian singing talent competition on Zee TV. Kunal's first singing assignment was a Ranjit Barot's jingle. Ranjit was impressed by Kunal's voice and called him to back one of his jingles. The jingle was "Doodh Doodh" for the Operation Flood ad. Kunal feels lucky that he is one of the singers to whom Ranjit Barot is a mentor. Kunal admitted that he was taken seriously by other music directors because he was working with Barot.

His first break in Bollywood was Ab Ke Baras in 2002. Although the song didn't mark him as a prominent singer, he got many offers in queue. Then after he sang in many movies like Saathiya (2002), Indian Babu (2003), Paisa Vasool (2004) , Khakee (2004) , Rudraksh (2004) , Dhoom (2004) and Meenaxi (2004). But his breakthrough hit "Bheege Hont" from the film Murder won the 2005 Zee Cine Award Best Playback Singer - Male and IIFA Best Male Playback Award.

Since then Kunal worked for many music directors like Anu Malik, Pritam, Himesh Reshammiya, Ismail Darbar, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Anand Raaj Anand, Roop Kumar Rathod,Daboo Malik, and Sanjeev-Darshan. Kunal recently sang for Sanjay Lila Bhansali's “Saawariya”. His numbers from the films Maashah Alaah and Pari were running top on the chart.

His song "Oh my love" from Bengali movie Amanush Jeet Gannguli and "Channa Ve Ghar aa jaa" from a Punjabi album Channa Ve by DJ Anit & Music director Santokh Singh was also a success.

Along with Hindi songs, Kunal entered Kannada film industry in 2005. His very first song in Kannada, 'Neene Neene' composed by music director R P Patnaik and written byK.Kalyan for the movie Akash starring Kannada's super star Puneet Rajkumar and southern Star Ramya under Kannada matinee idol Padmabhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke awardee Dr.Rajkumar's home banner 'Vajreshwari Combines' itself was a chart buster song of the year. But Kunal's big break in South India, was in the year 2006 from theKannada blockbuster film Mungaru Male that created a sensation and several records. His song "Onde Ondu Sari" written by Kaviraj and composed by music director Mano Murthy became the biggest hit of the year creating many records. The songs not only created records of highest sales and downloads, but the film too set a national record on 29 December 2007 of having completed one whole year at the PVR Cinemas, Bengaluru. This was the first time in the history of any multiplexes in the international level that a film has had a one whole year run at the box office where films keep changing every week. Kunal did not look back from then. Popular singer Sonu Nigam who is extremely famous 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 and the song was penned by the popular singer Sowmya Raoh and was sung by Kunal Ganjawala, Sonu Nigam and Sowmya Raoh together. He has sung nearly 450 Kannada Songs till date and he continues to deliver hit songs and is still the singing sensation of Karnataka.

Other than Hindi and Kannada, he has also sung in Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, Assamese and Sindhi languages.

Kunal sung many Bengali film songs like :

·         "Beporowa Mone" and "Kanamachi To" – Kanamachi

·         "Baliyaams" and "Jane Jana" – Macho Mustana

·         "Jani Na" – Faande Poriya Boga Kaande Re

·         "Mon Banjara" and "O Shona E Shona" – Fighter

·         "Amay Ador Kor" – Khokababu (2011)

·         "Mone Elo Melo Hawa" – Kolkata The Metro Life (2011)

·         "Mon Bebagi" – Paglu

·         "O My Love " – Amanush (2010)

·         "O Yara Ve" and "Its Only Pyar" – Dui Prithibi (2010)

·         "Shabba Rabba Reeba Ru", "Ekta Bindas Para" and "Le Chakka" – Le Chakka (2010)

·         "Mon Je Kore Uru Uru" – Mon Je Kore Uru Uru (2010)

·         "Cholche Raban Raj" – Paapi (2010)

·         "Sedin Dekha Hoyechilo" – Sedin Dekha Hoyechilo (2010)

·         "Ohona Jeno" and "karo Salaam" – Wanted (2010)

·         "Mahi Ve"- Challange

·         "Prem Aamar", "Uru Uru Swapne", "Kon Bhule Tumi", "Tumi Chhara Aaj Aka" and "Shob Rong Muche" – Prem Aamar (2009)

·         "Bande Mataram" – Minister Fatakesto (2007)

In 2007, he participated in a concert tour in North America, called The Incredibles, also featuring Asha Bhosle, Sonu Nigam and Kailash Kher.

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

The organizers of Confluence 2013, annual festival of Hans Raj College are considering him as 3rd Side Artist at their fest.

In 2005, he married fellow singer Gayatri Iyer. They performed the title track for STAR One's Antakshari together. In that very year Kunal got the Filmfare R.D. Burman Award for New Music Talent for the film Murder.