Kumar Sanu’s real name is Kedarnath Bhattacharaya. He is a playback singer. Apart from singing thousand songs Hindi songs, he has sung songs in other languages, inlcuding Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Urdu, Pali, Punjabi, English, Odia and Bengali. From 1990 through 1994, he held the record for winning the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer five times in a row. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2009. Many of his songs are included in the BBC’s list of the “Top 40 Bollywood Soundtracks of All Time.”

Kumar Sanu started his playback career, as Sanu Bhattacharya. In 1986, he got Bangladeshi film Tin Kanya, directed by Shibli Sadiq. Kumar Sanu had his first major Bollywood song in Hero Hiralal (1989).

In 1989 September 23, Jagjit Singh introduced Kumar Sanu to Kalyanji in Vimal Bunglow, Mumbai. On their suggestion, Sanu changed his name from “Kedarnath Bhattacharya” to “Kumar Sanu” after his idol Kishore Kumar. Sanu then relocated to Mumbai, where Kalyanji-Anandji gave him a chance to sing in the film Jaadugar.

For the 1990 film Aashiqui, music directors Nadeem-Shravan got Sanu to sing all but one of the songs. He won the first of his record five consecutive Filmfare Awards as Best Male Playback Singer. His next Filmfare Awards came for songs in the movies Saajan (1991), Deewana (1992), Baazigar (1993) and 1942: A Love Story (1994). He won 5 back to back Filmfare awards for singing, between 1990 and 1994.