Kumar Sanu

Kumar Sanu is an Indian singer born on September 23, 1957 in Calcutta (now Kolkata). His original name is Kedarnath Bhattacharya. He has got the singing talent right in his genes from his father a popular classical singer and composer Pashupati Bhattacharya who trained him as a singer and a table player. Besides he also holds a graduate degree in Commerce from Calcutta University.

Sanu started his career by singing in shows and restaurants in Calcutta. He considers legendary singer Kishore Kumar as his ideal. He ventured into playback singing with a Bangladeshi film 'Tin Kanya'. While music composer-singer Jagjit Singh gave him his first Bollywood break with the film 'Aandhiyan'. His next was 'Jaadugar' where he got chance to work with renowned duo Kalyanji Anandji. Because of his flourishing career he shifted his base to Mumbai and went on working with great personalities like Naushad, Ravindra Jain, Hridaynath Mangeshkar and Usha Khanna.

In the year 1990, Sanu tasted the peak of success while singing for blockbuster film 'Aashiqui' which earned him his first Filmfare Award for singing the track "Ab Tere Bin". For five consecutive years from 1991-95 he won back to back Best Male Playback Singer's award for films- 'Aashiqui', 'Saajan', 'Deewana', 'Baazigar' and '1942 A Love Story'.

Sanu holds the merits of Guinness World Record for recording 28 songs in one day. Government of India awarded him Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour and he has also been presented with Mhanayak Samman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bengali film fraternity.

Other works which find mention in Sanu's life history is his short spanning Political career launched by Bhartiya Janata Party in 2004, later he quitted it to concentrate on singing. He has also produced films like 'Utthaan' and 'Yeh Sunday Kyun Aata Hai'. Plus, he has been in the panel of judges while judging different versions of singing reality show 'Sa Re Ga Ma' on ZEE Bangla TV.