Gurukiran or also known as Gurukiran Shetty is a well-known music director from the Kannada film industry, who started his career in the year 1994 as director V. Manohar’s assistant. He was born on October 28 in Mangalore, Karnataka to K
Jayaram Shetty
and Ratnakanti. He studied at St. Aloysius Primary School in the early 70’s and he is an active class singer back then. He graduated Commerce in Mangalore University and after that he started to perform in orchestras as a singer and keyboardist.
Gurukiran entered the film industry as a music director for the Upendra-starrer and directorial film entitled A in the year 1998. Due to the success of the film, Upendra wanted him to work again on his next film. Gurukiran composed the songs in the psychological-thriller Kannada film, Upendra in year 1999, while Upendra himself penned the lyrics.
Besides music, Gurukiran wanted to enter the film industry as an actor and so he tried his luck in Sandalwood. Gurukiran’s first film was entitled Mr. Shanker Bekal as a cameraman. He then appeared on his first major role in the 1993 heist thriller film, Nishkarsha, helmed by
Sunil Kumar Desai
. However, he failed to make an impact as an actor.
His major breakthrough came in the year 2005 in Shivarajkumar-starrer Jogi, where he sang the songs Hodi Maga and Bin Ladennu Nan Maava. This record made an all time record in the Kannada film industry with a record selling prior to the release of the film. In 2007, he entered the Telugu film industry with the Telugu remake of Jogi entitled Yogi, helmed by V. V. Vinayak. He also scored the music for the Telugu film, Nagavalli in 2010.
Gurukiran has been into judging musical talent show such as
Confident Star Singer
Season 2 on Asianet Suvarna and on ETV Kannada’s Ede Tumbi Haduvenu. He sang several songs in Kannada films, including the Kanasina Maratta from the Kannada romance film, Banna Bannada Loka, which became a big hit. Gurukiran received several awards for his outstanding contributions to the Kannada film industry, including the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Music Director in 2011 and many more.
He got married to Pallavi Guru Kiran and they have been blessed with two children namely Hrudaya and Shravya.