Manjula Gururaj

Manjula Gururaj
Birth name	Manjula.R
Born	Mysore, Karnataka
Genres	Playback singing, Indian classical
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1983–present

Manjula Gururaj (Kannada: ಮಂಜುಳಾ ಗುರುರಾಜ್) is an Indian female playback singer and a voice-over artist who has primarily worked in Kannada feature films. She has, to her credit, many thousands of songs for successful soundtracks and many hundreds of Kannada light music songs. She is a recipient of Karnataka State Film Awards for her contribution in film songs and considered one of the most prominent playback singers during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.

Manjula Gururaj runs a music school named as "Sadhana Music School" which trains many youngsters in the field of music^[1]

Early life

Manjula Gururaj was born to G. Seetha Lakshmi and Dr.M.N.Ramanna on June 10, in Mysore. She studied science in Bangalore University. She got trained in both Carnatic, Hindustani styles of classical music.

Career

Playback Singer

She entered Kannada film industry as a playback singer in November 1983 for the Kannada movie Rowdi Raaja. She gained popularity for the song “Ollage Seridhare Gundu” from the movie Nanjundi Kalyana. She has sung more than 2,000 film songs in seven languages. In addition she has sung more than 12,500 other songs including devotional, folk, indi pop, semi classical songs in 9 languages.

Dubbing Artist

She started as a dubbing artist in 1982 for the movie ‘Ahuthi’ directed by T. S. Nagabharana. She led a successful career in dubbing artist since then. She was awarded by a special jury from Karnataka State Government as the Best Voice for the film Beladingala Baale, in which she lent her voice for the heroine who was heard, but not seen.

News Anchor

She has been news anchor for Bangalore Doordarshan for 14 years from 1983 to 1998 and Akashvani since 1981-1983.

Sadhana Music School

Manjula Gururaj a frontline playback singer in Kannada films started Manjula Gururaj’s Sadhana Music School on June 21, 1991, in Bangalore, which was inaugurated by the famed playback singer, S. Janaki, at Basavanagudi. Ever since it came into being Sadhana music school has made its presence felt all over Karnataka. Now Manjula Gururaj is the sole owner proprietress of the School.

Currently, there are 3 branches, namely in, Jayanagar, Basavanagudi and Malleshwaram

Awards

She has been awarded as the Best playback singer from Karnataka government for the song ‘Myale kavkonda mungaramoda’ in the Kannada movie Chinnari Mutha directed by T. S. Nagabharana, and music direction by C.Ashwath.