N.C.Karunya is an Indian playback singer, stage performer, YouTuber, songwriter, and TV show host. His claim to fame was the popular reality showIndian Idol on Sony Entertainment Television. After Indian Idol he became a recording artist by singing for more than 200 projects in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali but his mainstay has been Telugu, his mother tongue. He has also hosted various musical reality shows. In 2017, he launched his own YouTube channel and started releasing singles composed, written, and arranged by himself. He has received numerous awards from the media and government organisations for his songs in movies, telefilms and daily soaps. He is also known as a TV show host.
Early life
N.C.Karunya was born on 1 March 1986, to N.C.Madhu and P.Janaki in Hyderabad, India. He has been training in Carnatic classical under his Guru, "Vaaggeya Vidwanmani" Sri N.C. Murthy since the year 2000 and still continues to do so. He was the winner of Padutha Theeyaga Junior series, 1998.
Indian Idol 2
N.C. Karunya was a participant of the second season of Indian Idol. He was placed as a runner up to fellow contestant, Sandeep Acharya.
Films
After the end of Indian Idol 2, Karunya was called for an audition by Vidhu Vinod Chopra for Lage Raho Munnabhai. He began his playback career by singing for Sanjay Dutt. Then he sang a song in Jai Santoshi Maa for Anu Malik. After that, he went to Hyderabad to meet members of the Telugu film industry who rooted for him during "Indian Idol". In that series of meetings when he met Jr. NTR, he was offered his first Telugu hit "Ekaantangaa unna" by NTR himself, a song composed by Mani Sharma, for the film Ashok. After this song, he went on to record songs like "Orugalluke Pilla" from the film Sainikudu, Enduko from Chirutha, "123 Nenoka Kantri" from Kantri, Ammayi Kitiki Pakkana from Maryada Ramanna, Om Namo Siva Rudraya from Khaleja, Oola Oolala Ala from Orange, Vayyarala jabilli from Pawan Kalyan's Teenmar, "Andam andam" from Vetadu-Ventadu, composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, starring Vishal, "Meher meher" from "D for Dopidi", "Suvvi Suvvaalamma" from the movie Loafer, two songs for "It's my lovestory" and many more. He was the voice behind the short film made by Allu Arjun and director Sukumar, I Am That Change. Phir mile sur Karunya was the youngest singer to be a part of the remake of the song "Mile sur mera tumhaara". It was remade in 2010 and released as "Phir mile sur" on republic day on Zoom TV.
Album
Karunya released his first Hindi album, the self-titled Karunya, on 9 August 2008. The music was composed by Lesle Lewis and the video was directed by the sister of Madhu Sarkar.
Karunya hosted the reality show Little Champs on Zee Telugu, Airtel "Saptaswaralu", on ETV, Vijetha-Voice of Andhra on local TV with M. M. Keeravani as the judge and Super Singer 8, on Maa TV with again M. M. Keeravani and also Smt. K.S.Chitra as the judges.
Discography
Awards
He won the Bharathamuni award for Best Male Debut Playback Singer.
He won the Vamsi-Berkeley award for Best Male Playback Singer.
He won the Nandi award from the Government of A.P. for a song sung for the teleserial Melukolupu in the year 2006.
He was honored as the "Young Rising Star of India" by the Undersecretary-General of the UN, Shashi Tharoor in New York.
He was honored as "One of the rare talents of Indian music Industry" by the prestigious organisation IANT of Dallas.
He received Santosham film magazine's "Best Male Playback Singer of the Year 2007" award for his song in Chirutha.
He was nominated in the "Best Male Playback Singer" category in the 56th Filmfare awards for his song "Andamaina Kalala" from the movie Baladoor.
He won the "Best male playback singer of the year" award at the Big Tollywood awards conducted by 92.7 BIG FM in association with ETV for his song "Sydney" from "Orange".
He won the Filmfare award in the "Best male playback singer – Telugu" category in the 58th Filmfare south awards for his song "Sada Siva" from "Khaleja"
He won the Santosham award in the "Best male playback singer-2010" category again for his song "Sada Siva" from "Khaleja"
He won the Aalapana award for the "Best male playback singer-2011" for his song "Thadi pedavule" from the Telugu movie "It's My lovestory".
He won the Saakshi Excellence Award for the "Best Male Playback Singer-2015" for his song "Suvvi Suvvaalammaa" in the Telugu movie Loafer.
He won his second Nandi award from the Government of A.P. for title song of the daily serial Ashta Chamma telecast on Maa TV.
