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Singer Kumar Sanu is often addressed as the Melody King of the ’90s. He gave Hindi cinema many chartbusters such as “Nazar Ke Samne”, “Bas Ek Sanam Chahiye”, “Chura Ke Dil Mera,” and others. Recently, the singer narrated the story behind his stage name, and revealed why he was told to change his name to Kumar Sanu from Kedarnath Bhattacharya. The singer also said that he got a start by singing at hotels in Kolkata and Mumbai, so that he could record himself on cassettes and approach music directors for work.
Talking to BBC Hindi, Sanu shared it was the music director duo Kalyanji–Anandji who decided that he should change his name. He said, “Kalyan ji and Anand Ji believed that Bengali singers cannot sing Hindi or Urdu lyrics. But they told me, ‘your Urdu is quite fluent. But, this surname Bhattacharjee gives you the label of being a Bengali, so we will change this.’ So, they named me Kumar Sanu,” he said in Hindi.
Divulging more details, the singer added, “Sanu was my pet name. Originally my name was ‘Chaanu’, and that came from ‘Chenna’ (a sweet dish). I was a plump kid, so everyone at my house used to call me ‘Channa’ which later became ‘Chaanu’ and then finally ‘Sanu’.”
The singer presumably benefitted from this; he has spent 35 years in the Hindi film industry. But the journey to success wasn’t without its setbacks. He started by singing at hotels to earn some money.
“I used to sing at hotels and used to make cassettes from the money I earned. Then, I used to take my music cassettes to music directors in Calcutta in the hope of getting work,” Sanu shared, while adding that he was mostly rejected by music directors in Kolkata, as they found his singing style similar to legendary singer Kishore Kumar. “Everyone said that I sing like Kishore Da. ‘Abhi Kishore Da zinda hain, tumko kyun lenge, unse gava lenge. (Kishore Da is alive, why would we take you)?” they would tell him.
However, the singer’s talent finally got recognised by Gulshan Kumar. “Then I came to Bombay and worked at hotels here as well. In between, I was singing a cover version with Gulshan ji and he was making a film called Jeena Teri Gali Mein. He gave me the chance to sing two songs in the movie and they became superhits. So, he got that confidence in me and he then gave me films like Aashiqui,” Kumar Sanu shared.
Since then, there has been no looking back for the singer. In a recent interview with indianexpress.com, he revealed that he has sung over 21,000 songs in 26 languages. He said, “It is difficult to keep a track of all of them, collect them. Some 1000-2000 songs are still missing. The way I am going, the number will cross 22,000 by the end of this year.”
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