So he lost Indian Idol, but it's never too late to vote for Karunya. And it's never one time too many. Here's another chance.
The Annual Golconda Cultural starts on 28th April, at the Taramati Baradari. This year's edition of the fest will have three programs on day one and two programs on day two. Noted musicians like city lad Karunya, flautist Pandit Ronu Mazumdar, violinist Kumaresh Ganesh, saxophonist Kadiri Gopalnath, percussionist Taufiq Qureshi, the Wadali Brothers and Begum Parveen Sultana will perform during the 2-day event, which also features a Hindi comedy play, Taj Mahal Ka Tender.
Today, the opening day, N C Karunya opens the festival with some classical devotional numbers of Saint Ramadas and Saint Annamacharya. Karunya was born in Hyderabad in a family of classical singers. He has been training in Carnatic music under his guru and uncle N C Murthy, since the age of 4. Karunya cut an album of his own in his childhood called 'Chiru Sarigamalu' which was launched by Chiranjeevi.
Karunya later also went on to win 'Paaduta Teeyaga', a TV show hosted by Dr. S P Balasubrahmanyam and televised throughout South India on ETV. He was appreciated highly by SPB and the audience of Andhra Pradesh for his ability to render the entire range of vocals. He has sung at many local stage shows in Hyderabad. In 2005, he also sang two songs in a Telugu movie Vamsham.
He is the only South-Indian to have made it to the final of Indian Idol 2, but lost in the final to Sandeep Acharya. Since the end of Indian Idol 2, Karunya has sung for the Hindi film Lage Raho Munnabhai, 2 songs for the Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa, and for several Telugu films.
He has also recently done a range of concerts in the US. He is perhaps one of the very few singers to have visited the US a second time within a span of 3 months. His show in Dallas on 7th October 2006 had an audience size of 40,000, the highest for any Indian artiste in the US.
The entry tickets are priced at Rs. 200 per head for the day's events. For further details, please contact APTDC at 2326-2151 or the venue at 2352-0172/2352-1884.