N. C. Karunya

N. C. Karunya (born 1 March 1986) is a popular playback singer. He was a runner-up on the popular reality show Indian Idol (Season 2) on Sony Entertainment Television.

Although he did not win the competition, Karunya was a popular participant in Indian Idol 2, especially with people in North India because of his performance of Punjabi and Rajasthani songs.

After the end of Indian Idol 2, Karunya was called for an audition by Vidhu Vinod Chopra for Lage Raho Munnabhai. He was immensely liked by Vidhu, director Rajkumar Hirani and music director Shantanu Moitra. 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 had supported him for Indian Idol. Then he recorded his first Telugu song for composer Mani Sharma, for the film Ashok starring Jr. NTR. The song was very well received and Karunya was offered many more songs in Telugu. He went on to record "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, and Ola Olaala from Orange.

2011 saw the release of his song a retro Vayyarala jabilli from Pawan Kalyan's "Teenmar", composed by Manisarma.These were followed by films Seema Tapakai,"It's my lovestory","Solo" etc.

In 2012,Karunya recorded for films like Nuvva Nena,"Mr.7","Nan life alli"(A Kannada film),various Tele serial title songs etc.But his biggest release in 2012 was the popular mass song "Pillani chooste" from the Pawan Kalyan starrer Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu.

The start of 2013 saw Karunya sing the Telugu version "Andam andam" of the Tamil superhit "Azhago Azhagu" of the Tamil movie Samar (2013 film)released as "Vetadu-Ventadu",composed by none other than Yuvan Shankar Raja,starring Vishal (actor).Then he went on rendering the soulful "O kanu papa" with soft rock influences in the movie "Sahasam".But,the actual winner for him came in the form of the Hindustani melodic chartbuster "Meher meher" from surprisingly a flop movie,"D for dopidi".

In 2014, he sang "Inthakante vere" from the successful movie "Oohalu gusagusalaade". Many other of his recordings have been for low-budget movies and he was also the voice behind the short film made by Allu Arjun and 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. Mahesh Babu himself featured in the video. Representing Telugu people solely, he wanted Karunya to be his voice. Karunya recorded his part of the song under the guidance of Louis Banks.

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 a sister of Pradeep Sarkar Parineeta (2005 film), Madhu Sarkar. The album was received well by his fans; there was a sellout in Hyderabad as well as a place in the charts in Delhi and Kolkata.

He had done numerous concerts in and abroad India and still continues to do so.

His show in Dallas on 7 October 2006 had an audience of 40,000. He has toured America, performed in The Emirates, Singapore and East Africa and West Africa.

He is the only artist to have performed at the opening ceremony of the World Military Games held in Hyderabad in the year 2007, before an audience of about two lakh people of about 101 nationalities and presided over by the President of India Smt. Pratibha Patil.

Karunya hosted the reality show Little Champs in Telugu telecast on Zee Telugu. Follwing this, he took up Airtel "Saptaswaralu", which was aired on ETV and later on hosted Vijetha-Voice of Andhra on Local TV with M. M. Keeravani as the judge.

Super Singer 8

After staying away from competing in any reality show in north & south for nearly 5 years and thus not being a part of the hugely successful Super Singer franchise, finally Karunya was called to be a part of Super Singer 8 and perform in the contestant introduction episodes.

Subsequently for the rest of the series of Super Singer 8, Karunya was chosen to be the host. The first episode with him as the host was aired on 8th Sept 2014 and got him a lot of applause.

Some of the movies in which he has given playback are Lage Raho Munnabhai, Ashok, Kantri, Teen maar, Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu, Chirutha, Orange, Sainikudu, Khaleja, Chandamama, Arundhati, Maryada Ramanna, Seema Sastry, Siddu from Sikakulam, Seema Tapakai, Dubai Seenu, Andari Banduvaya,Baladoor,Brahmigadi Kadha,It's my love story, Solo, Nuvva Nena, Mr.7, Vetadu-Ventadu, Saahasam,D for dopidi, Oohalu Gusagusalaade,Asura,Lofar etc.

Karunya appeared on the first season of ETV's "Swarabhishekam", a show in which former greats, contemporary popular singers and rising talent collaborated to celebrate Telugu film music. His has since appeared in two more seasons.

• 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.
• 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 plaback 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" .