Manjula Gururaj

Manjula Gururaj is a veteran Indian background singer and a voice-over artist. She predominantly works for the south Indian film Industry in Kannada feature films. She came into the limelight in the decade from 1980 to 1990.

She has thousands of successful songs to her credit and has received many awards for her contribution to the Kannada cinema. She was born on 10th of June 1959 in Mysore, Karnataka. She is also the founder of Sadhana Music School, Bangalore, Karnataka; it gives training to young aspirants in the music field.

Born on 10th June 1959, Manjula took birth in the family of Dr.M.N.Ramanna and G. Seetha Lakshmi. As a child, Manjula received formal training in music, mainly in the Hindustani and Carnatic genre of music. She went to Bangalore University for further studies where she studied Science. Before the start of her career, she got married to Sri Gururaj in 1979.

In 1981, she joined the radio station Akashvani. In 1983 she got her first breakthrough in the Kannada movie Rowdy Raja. Side by Side she also worked for Doordarshan as an anchor till 1998. In the year 1989, she sang Olage Seridhare Gundu for the movie Nanjundi Kalyana, this song became a major hit, and Manjula became Manjula’s first hit song.

After this, she sang for actress Malashree in all of her films. She is a singer of more than 2000 songs in over five languages. Moreover, she is the voice behind 12,500 odd songs in genres including folk, Hindustani, Sufi, and Indi-pop.

In addition to being a playback singer, Majula also worked as a voice-over artist. In 1982 she dubbed for the movie Ahuthi for the first time, after that she gave her voice for Beladingala Baale which won her an award Best Voice over by Karnataka State Government.

She has also won Best Playback singer award by Karnataka government for the movie Chinnari Mutha; she sang the song ‘Myale kavkonda mungaramoda.’ In 1991, she started Sadhana Music School for giving musical training to young aspirants in the field of music.

The inauguration happened on 21st June 1991 by singer S. Janaki. The school is a success and now operates in 3 centers across South India. She lives in Bangalore with her husband, her daughter Sangeeta, and her son Sagar.