Renowned singer Krishnakumar Kunnath alias “KK” died yesterday, hours after a concert in Kolkata. His official Instagram page even has visuals of the concert in a Kolkata auditorium. He unfortunately collapsed at the hotel where he was staying after the concert in Kolkata’s Nazrul Mancha auditorium. As per the doctors at CMRI hospital, the singer was brought dead.
Krishnakumar Kunnath, whose stage name was KK, was known for songs like ‘Pal’, ‘Yaaron’, ‘Dil Ibadat’, ‘Beete Lamhe’ and a lot more songs which went on to become big hits, especially among the teens in the late 1990s, often heard during the school & college functions as well as the cultural fests. His 1999 debut album “Pal” went tremendously popular. From the early 2000s, he blazed a career in playback singing and recorded a wide range of popular hits for a lot of Bollywood movies. Not just Hindi, but he has recorded songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Bengali langauges too.
KK began his career by singing for advertisement jingles, and made his film debut with an A.R. Rahman soundtrack. In 1999, he launched his debut album titled Pal. The songs “Pal” and “Yaaron” from the album Pal became very popular and were commonly used in school and college farewells. His popular songs included “Tadap Tadap” from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), the Tamil song “Apadi Podu”, “Dola Re Dola” from Devdas (2002), “Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai” from Woh Lamhe… (2006), “Aankhon Mein Teri” from Om Shanti Om (2007), “Khuda Jane” from Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008), “Piya Aaye Na” from Aashiqui 2 (2013), “Mat Aazma Re” from Murder 3 (2013), “India Wale” from Happy New Year (2014) and “Tu Jo Mila” from Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), among others. He has received six Filmfare Awards nominations, and a Filmfare Awards South.
Born in Delhi to Malayali parents C. S. Menon and Kunnath Kanakavalli, Krishnakumar Kunnath was brought up in New Delhi. KK sang 3,500 jingles before breaking into Bollywood. He was an alumnus of Delhi’s Mount St Mary’s School and graduated from Kirori Mal College, Delhi University. He sang in the “Josh of India” song for the support of Indian Cricket Team during Cricket World Cup of 1999. This song featured members of the Indian Cricket Team. KK married Jyothy in 1991. His son Nakul Krishna Kunnath sang a song “Masti” from his album Humsafar with him. KK also has a daughter named Tamara Kunnath. The sudden demise of KK, is a huge loss for the entire Indian film and music industry.
