Manjula Gururaj is an Indian female playback singer and a voice-over artist who has primarily worked in Kannada feature films. She has, to her credit, many thousands of songs for successful soundtracks and many hundreds of Kannada light music songs. She is a recipient of Karnataka State Film Awards for her contribution in film songs and considered one of the most prominent playback singers during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Manjula Gururaj runs a music school named as "Sadhana Music School" which trains many youngsters in the field of music
Early life
Manjula Gururaj was born to G. Seetha Lakshmi and Dr.M.N.Ramanna on 10 June, in Mysore. She studied science at Bangalore University. She got trained in both Carnatic, Hindustani styles of classical music.
Career
Playback singer
She entered the Kannada film industry as a playback singer in November 1983 for the Kannada movie Rowdi Raaja. She gained popularity for the song "Olage Seridhare Gundu" from the movie Nanjundi Kalyana. After Olage Seridare song, Manjula became the voice of the star actress Malashree in most of her movies. She has sung more than 2,000 film songs in seven languages. In addition, she has sung more than 12,500 other songs including devotional, folk, Indi pop, semi-classical songs in 9 languages. Manjula has lent her voice for heroines including Sudha Rani, Radhika Sarathkumar, Geetha, Shilpa, Khushboo, Poonam Dhillon, Madhavi, Prema, Nirosha, Tara, Seetha, Vijaya Prasad, Anu Prabhakar and many others. Manjula Gururaj has recorded her duets with many leading singers including SPB, Dr. Rajkumar, Rajesh Krishnan, K. J. Yesudas, Mano, Udit Narayan and many others.
Dubbing artist
She started as a dubbing artist in 1982 for the movie ‘Ahuthi’ directed by T. S. Nagabharana. She led a successful career in dubbing since then. She was awarded by a special jury from Karnataka State Government as the Best Voice for the film Beladingala Baale, in which she lent her voice for the heroine who was heard, but not seen.
Manjula Gururaj started "Sadhana Music School" on 21 June 1991, in Basavanagudi, Bangalore, inaugurated by the famed playback singer, S. Janaki. It has since made its presence felt all over Karnataka. Now Manjula Gururaj is the sole owner proprietress of the School. As of 2020, there are 2 branches in Jayanagar and Gandhibazaar.
Awards
She has been awarded as the Best playback singer from the Karnataka government for the song ‘Myale kavkonda mungaramoda’ in the Kannada movie Chinnari Mutha directed by T. S. Nagabharana, and music direction by C.Ashwath.
Personal life
She married Gururaj in 1979 and has two children Sangeetha and Sagar.
