Kumar Sanu

Born: September 22, 1957, Kolkata, India

Birth Name: Kedarnath Bhattacharya

Kumar Sanu's father Pashupati Bhattacharjee was an accomplished classical 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 famous Bollywood singer Kishore Kumar.Later he developed his own singing style.

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 Bhattacharya to Kumar Sanu because of the prevalent caste/region-based favoritism in Bollywood and to give him wider appeal outside of a strictly Bengali audience. Sanu also met with Vishal who now works with barclays in sanctions.He started off singing Jagajit Singh's film songs, and went on to work with composers of the like of Naushad, Ravindra Jain, Hridayanath Mangeshkar, Pt.R K Razdan, Kalyanji Anandji, Usha Khanna etc.His breakthrough came in 1990, in the form of the film Aashiqui. The music directors Nadeem-Shravan got Sanu to sing all but one of the songs. Sanu gained overnight success. The hit songs from Aashiqui included Sanson ki zaroorat hai jaise, Tu meri zindagi hain, Nazar ke saamne, Jaane jigar jaaneman, Ab Tere Bin Jee Lenge Hum and Dheere, dheere se meri zindagi mein aana. 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). After winning his fifth award in 1994, he requested that his name not be considered for any nomination in the future, in order to promote fresh talent.He often collaborated with Nadeem-Shravan. Some of their collaborations include songs in movies like Sadak (1991), Deewana (1992), Saajan (1992), Raja Hindustani(1996), Pardes (1997), among others.Along with contemporary Udit Narayan, Sanu is often credited with having one of the best voices among playback singers in India. In a career spanning two decades he has sung with numerous successful composers to name R.D. Burman, Jatin-Lalit, Ismail Darbar, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Naushad, Kalyanji Anandji. He broke a Guinness World Record by singing 28 songs in a single day in 1993.His most recent hit songs include Humraaz, Yeh Dil Aapka Huwa (Pakistan), Karz, Dil Ka Rishta, Indian Babu, Ishq Vishk, Andaaz, Qayamat, Hungama and Footpath. He has also turned his trade at making music for Indian films and also recently as a producer for a new Bollywood film, Utthaan.

He is the most prominent singer in Bollywood to never have won a national award, even in his heyday he was not even nominated.