Karunyas Latest Interview...check it out...
Making his Mark-Interview with Karunya
Tuesday June 6 2006 10:39 IST
He missed this year's Indian Idol title by a hairsbreadth. But Karunya, or N C Karunya, to give his full name, is unfazed - after all, not everybody gets a break like two songs in a Munnabhai series film within weeks of that defeat, or an exacting and musically-savvy filmmaker like Vidhu Vinod Chopra praising him to the skies in the press and stressing that he will make the young artiste a winner.
But then the Hyderabad-born Karunya has shown ample promise ever since he first stunned the Indian Idol audience with his skills at singing completely North Indian songs and giving his original flavour to some really challenging renditions of singers as assorted as Manna Dey, Sukhwinder Singh, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Sonu Nigam.
A 19-year-old, who has provoked more than one standing ovation from judges Anu Malik, Sonu Nigam and Farah Khan as well as the audience, and inspired Anu Malik to predict that he will be the Numero Uno singer one day, cannot be an ordinary talent. And Nallan Chakratanthula Karunya radiates confidence when we meet up. Is the Munnabhai 2nd Innings song his first-ever recording?
"Yes, it is my first playback as well as post-Indian Idol assignment. Even before ...Idol, I was doing shows and private recordings in Hyderabad. But Aane chaar aane bache hai ... is my first film song.
After that I have sung a second song, a duet with Shreya Ghoshal, for Munnabhai and have recorded in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.
He grins and adds, it is as if the South has suddenly woken up to me and wants to compensate for the lack of interest they showed while the show was on!" Does the last-moment setback rankle then?
"No, because I knew I was not going to win!" says Karunya.
He explains, "I was totally prepared for the result for several reasons. Down South, my friends would appreciate my singing in Telugu, but were least interested in hearing me sing in Hindi. There is still a good amount of anti-Hindi bias in pockets in the South.
On the other hand, if I could see the magnitude of the support and voting for my rival Sandeep, I could also see the love that my listeners and the judges had for me.
My best friend, Meenal Jain, had also seen it coming. She was the one who had prepared me psychologically for my defeat. Being an eternal positive thinker, she kept telling me that everything happens for the best."
He ruminates and adds, "About 5 days before the Finale, I had an intuition as well. After the announcement, I was upbeat and very happy, because now my progress was not going to be dependent upon votes! And I knew that I had a very good innings ahead!"
Karunya hails from a family that is besotted with music, though he is the first among them to take music up professionally, or, as he smilingly puts it, commercially. The N C family is a complete musical family of violinists, flautists and vocalists.
"They are all extremely skilled musicians, but not commercial performers. I first learned hardcore classical Carnatic music, and riyaaz for three hours every morning was a must. I am now learning with my father's elder brother N C Murthy, under whose training my voice has become much more flexible."
But Karunya's tastes were always cosmopolitan. He recollects singing in school in multiple languages including mother tongue Telugu and Hindi, and listening (as he does even now) to every kind of music, including Western (I like everything except rock!).
In Mumbai, Karunya is also training under Bhavdeep Jaipurwale, who was grooming the ...Idol contestants.
And this is what explained both the singer's choice of songs as well as his tremendous ease at genres that are completely different from his roots. Admitting that he chose a variegated list of songs, especially those that were Northern in flavour to show his skills, Karunya also stresses that he always looks for compositions that quenched his flexibility.
Says the youngster, "I knew that if it was the Holi special, I had to sing Arey jaa re hat natkhat ... from Navrang. I knew that in a non-film round I had to wane Nusrat-ji's Piya re... In classical, I wanted to sing Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya ... What if he now gets a sub-standard song as a playback singer? "I think that one cannot categorize a song's quality before actually singing it. But I will try to contribute something additional from my side," he says. It is as much a challenge, though of a different kind, to sing an original song as it is to sing an established song well.
Maybe we should have asked this first, but how was the Munnabhai 2nd Innings experience?
Very memorable! smiles the singer. "I never realized when the recording was over! I gave one take and they nodded. When I came out, they told me that they were keeping it!"
About Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Karunya says, "He is a very sweet and caring person. He addresses me as Naani, which is a Telugu endearment for a younger person and my family's favourite way of addressing me. It is very generous of him to promote me as his find."
Apart from Shantanu Moitra in Hindi, Karunya has recorded with leading music directors in the South like Manisarma, Anoop Reuben, Suman Joopudi and S A Rajkumar.
Karunya has also rendered the title-song of the Telugu dubbed version of Aadesh Shrivastava's Alag (the Hindi original was sung by Kunal Ganjawala), though he admits that the music director was not around when he recorded it.
A Final Year student in Electrical and Chemical Engineering, Karunya intends to complete his education before plunging headlong into his pre-determined (and pre-ordained) career in music, which is also the dream and ambition of his parents and the entire N C clan.
Even as he shuttles between Mumbai and the South (I am hunting for a house in Mumbai too!) he has international dreams pegged out as well.
I want to sing every genre from Indian classical, light singing and playback to Western classical and modern styles. I want to be an international star who is known for his singing rather than for the accessories like performance or dance! He says with quiet emphasis.
Winning the Indian Idol title was never my dream. For me the show was a platform. I wanted to enter last years contest when I heard the first announcement, but before I knew it, the selections were over, because there was no audition in the South.
Most of the finalists of talent-hunt shows come out fast with albums. What about him?
"I am planning an album, but nothing is decided as yet. Whatever album I come out with must quench my creativity as a singer. I am not interested in coming out with an album for the sake of it."
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