KK's sudden death at 53 shocks nation: Scroll through late singer's lesser known facts

Renowned Bollywood singer Krishnakumar Kunnath aka KK died a tragic death after his live concert in Kolkata's Nazrul Mancha auditorium on May 31, 2022 night. He was on a two-day tour to the city to perform at two college programmes respectively. The case was lodged with New Market Police Station under whose jurisdiction falls the five-star hotel where KK had put up and felt unwell before being taken to a hospital on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, a preliminary postmortem report suggests no foul play in the death. Many celebrities, family, fans and political leaders paid their last respects to the renowned Bollywood singer, who was accorded a gun salute. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, paid floral tributes to the late singer, whose body was kept at Rabindra Sadan for final darshan. The CM consoled KK's wife and son, who broke into tears. Today, let's scroll through some of his lesser-known facts which will make the singer immortal through his music: 

(Pic Courtesy: Instagram/Twitter)

KK also featured in television singing reality show Indian Idol Junior Season 2 in 2015 and in the same year, he was seen in Baaton Baaton Mein on Sony Mix.

The late singer participated in MTV India Coke Studio, singing a qawwali 'Chadta Suraj' along with Sabri Brothers and a recomposed version of his exquisite track "Tu Aashiqui Hai" from the movie Jhankaar Beats. KK featured on several TV shows. He has also performed in Sony Mix TV Show and MTV Unplugged Season 3, which aired on MTV on 11 January 2014 besides singing at several musical concerts across the globe including Dubai, Hong Kong, Chennai, and Goa among others.

In 2008, KK sang a song named 'Tanha Chala' for the Pakistani TV show The Ghost which was aired on Hum TV. It was composed by Farrukh Abid, Shoiab Farrukh, and Momina Duraid penned the lyrics.

Born to Malayali parents, KK was brought up in New Delhi. He is an alumnus of Mount St Mary's School and graduated from Kirori Mal College (KMC) Delhi University. He married his childhood sweetheart Jyothy Lakshmi Krishna in 1991. The couple has two children together - son Nakul Krishna Kunnath and daughter Tamara Kunnath. His son also sang the song 'Masti' from his album Humsafar with him.

In 1999, KK released his debut album called 'Pal', with songs including the title track 'Pal' and 'Yaaron' riding high on the chartbuster lists. 

KK sang the iconic song 'Tadap Tadap Ke Is Dil Se' from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' in 1999, which marked his big Bollywood debut. But, not many know that much before this song happened, KK had sung a portion in 'Chhod Aaye Hum' from Gulzar's Maachis in 1996. 

He made his film debut with an AR Rahman soundtrack 'Kalluri Saaley' and 'Hello Dr.' from Kadir's Kadhal Desam, followed by 'Strawberry Kannae' from AVM Productions' musical film Minsara Kanavu (1997). 

KK started off his musical journey by singing for advertisement jingles. In a span of four years, he sang more than 3,500 jingles across 11 languages. KK considered Lesle Lewis as his mentor for giving him his first jingle to sing in Mumbai.

The versatile singer had recorded songs in several languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Bengali, Assamese and Gujarati respectively.