BENGALURU: A little over three months ago, India lost one of its vocal cords with the untimely passing of Krishnakumar Kunnath, known simply as KK. The celebrated singer, who was 53 years old, collapsed in a hotel after his concert at Kolkata’s Nazrul Mancha.
The entire country’s music scene plunged into deafening silence. When you’re a singer who has contributed to music in various languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, you’re celebrated by many. After KK’s passing, many concerts were organised in his tribute. One such concert, Sing for KK, has been organised on September 10, 2022, at Bhartiya Mall.
Celebrated musicians, including Kunal Ganjawala and Zubeen Garg, will be present at the event. Members of his family shall be there as well. “It’s tough to describe what KK meant for me. He was a friend and an older brother. I must have met him only around 10 times in the last two decades, but our bond was ‘no strings attached’. It wasn’t a forced friendship.
Even if we met five years later, we would just pick up from where we left off,” says Ganjawala, who met KK for the first time around 1996 when the former was doing his first big-time recording. “Not many know this, but when he got signed by Sony Music, during those days various music producers used to work with record labels in Delhi, KK turned them on to me.
So, I got those 7-8 eight recordings due to his recommendation which built my confidence as an artiste,” shares Ganjawala, who worked with KK on various songs, including O Humdum Suniyo Re from Saathiya (2002). Zubeen Garg, who has sung popular songs like Ya Ali (Gangster) and Dil Tu Hi Bataa (Krrish 3), met KK several times in studios.
“Even though we saw each other very often, I met him for the first time in 1996 at a club. Since then, we have frequented each other in studios over the last couple of decades. The last time I saw KK was in Kolkata two years ago when we had shows in the same venue. I was going out, and he followed me and took the stage,” says Garg, who had made a duet with KK for a song called Teri Tamanna from the movie The Train (2007).
This tribute concert has been organised by Bengaluru-based record label Alive India, which was founded in 2012. Supratiek Ghosh, the founder, was discussing with KK about arranging a concert for the 10th anniversary of Alive India only a few hours before the latter passed away.
“I was shocked when I heard the news. For the first few days, I was not in a good shape. We’ve shared a close relationship for years, and his death took a toll on me. I have so many memories of working with him and watching him work. As a musician, few are as professional as KK was,” says Ghosh, who is also the singer of the Bengaluru-based band AURKO.