KK, the voice of many hearts, is among the best singers of our Indian Music. The path to reach this zenith has been carved by this Keralite himself. If you listen to the songs of this Delhi based singer, you can easily feel how beautifully he emotes. He truly believes in what he says, “Dil se kaam karo is my ‘funda’". Just like his idol Kishore Kumar, KK is self-trained. Yet his singing is so simple and his effortlessness is beyond comparison. He says God has gifted him with his talents. And also says, “I leave everything to God and that helps me select the best songs.”.His has a very wide range of songs, be it soft numbers like “Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai”, “Zara Si”, “Dil Ibadat”, or sad songs “Awarapan Banjarapan”, “Tadap Tadap Ke”, or dance numbers such as, ”Dus Bahane”, “Main tera Dhadkan” and ”Ayashi”. The ease with which he strikes his chords is so remarkable. The best part of this amazing singer is that he is one of the most amazing human being, his humble nature will make you go gaga over him. There is nothing that he craves for, be it awards, fame or publicity. He is always thankful to God for his ability and work. His ultimate focus lies on the kind of work he gets & needless to say, he outdoes himself every time he comes up with a new track.
As a child he wanted to be a doctor, but went on to become a commerce graduate. He even worked as a Market executive for 8 months. But destiny had something else stored for him and us. He soon realized that music was where his heart lies.
In 1994, the year his son was born, he gave his demo tope to Louis Banks, Ranjit Barot, Shiv Mathur and Leslie Lewis to get a break in the music arena. He got the first break in Mumbai from UTV to sing jingles and success followed soon. He grabbed his first bollywood song, “Chod Aye Hum” from the movie “Maachis” with music director Vishal Bhardwaj. Since then he never looked back, he has sang over thousands of jingles and more than 600 songs in 9 languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and many more.
His first album “Pal”, which he came up with his mentor Leslie Lewis, was an instant hit and ignited the youths. For this, he got the prestigious SCREEN award as best singer. His second album,”Humsafar” came after a gap of 8 years, in which he plays the composer too. He says that he has grown as a musician and a human being too over these years.
He also says that he feel lucky to be able to work with music directors such as “Shankar-Ehsan-Loy”, “A R Rahman”, “Illayaraja”. Nevertheless, this man is a genius himself and that is why his fan followings are increasing day by day. He says, “I'm as popular as my last hit song. I'm happy as long as my listeners like my music.”
He loves to sing live as much as playback singing. “There is a certain energy an artiste gets when he or she is on stage. No matter what one’s condition is, once I am on stage, I forget everything and simply perform,” he says.
The kind of performer he is, rightly give us the reason to call him The Mesmerizer. He married his childhood sweetheart Jyothi in 1991. It has been 28 years since they know each other. They know each other from sixth standard. Jyothi is a painter and designer by profession. His eldest son Nakul seems to be following proud father's footsteps. The then 13-year-old sang a song MASTI from his latest album HUMSAFAR with his father. KK has a daughter Taamara. As a family man, KK prefers to spend time with family when he is not working. In an interview he said,” One thing very few people know is that I love to talk. My wife and I chat from morning till evening. Eventually, my 16-year-old son has to come and ask us to break our chatting session!”
He says his family is what gives him the strength to cope with all the pressure of Bollywood, where one has to continuously carve one's niche and hold on to it.
KK appeared on television too. He was invited as jury member for a talent hunt show FAME GURUKUL, but he is clear that he would not like to return to television as the medium restricts him.
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