Popular singer KK passed away on the night of May 31 leaving the entire country shocked and grief-struck. The singer was performing at a concert in Kolkata when his condition deteriorated. While KK was rushed to the hospital, he was then declared dead. Since then, social media is flooded with fans blaming the management authorities and alleging how air conditioners were not working at the event venue or that it was too crowded. Recently, singer Arjun Kanungo also talked about KK’s death in an exclusive conversation with News18.com and revealed he knows that the conditions at the venue where KK performed are bad because he also had a similar experience a couple of years back.
Arjun Kanungo mentioned that he was left shocked when he heard the news of KK’s sudden demise and added that the Bollywood singer was such an inspiration to him. Sharing that he grew up listening to KK’s songs, Arjun said, “KK has been such a big inspiration for me. When I used to make covers, we made so many covers of KK’s songs. If you grew up in the ’90s, which I did, it was his songs which we listened to in school – Yaaro Dosti or the album which he dropped was such an influential album. It was not possible to be in school at that time and not listening to his album.”
Arjun went on to say that KK’s death could have been avoided. “I think I was just sad, 53 is nothing. My mom is 60 and I think my mom is very young. 53 years is too young. Especially when I hear about the circumstances around his death. It’s sad, it could have been avoided. He was young and he did not look like somebody who would have a heart attack. I don’t know, I am not a doctor,” he said.
The Fursat singer further shared how he had also performed at the same venue before the pandemic started. “I have performed at the same auditorium. It was hot. ACs did not work. Maybe he had a worse experience because it’s summer. When this happened (KK passed away), my manager said, ‘Oh my god! This is the same auditorium we performed in and it was the same’,” Arjun told News18.com.
Arjun said the venue where KK performed is very old and not well maintained. “I have definitely performed there and faced similar issues. It’s a very old auditorium where ACs don’t work. These older auditoriums are not very well maintained. I don’t know what the management did. It would be all hearsay for me to say management did not work properly or so. I don’t know what happened, I wasn’t there. He could have said something, maybe the organisers did not know. Who knows what happened. It is a very difficult thing to point fingers at this stage but I will say that it could have been avoided,” he said.
On the work front, Arjun Kanungo recently released his debut album, Industry, which sees him venturing into experimental and intense soundscapes. The album features different collaborators of the likes of King, the budding Indian producer-songwriter Yash Vaid, UK-based songwriter Martin Hollis (who also worked with Adele and Ed Sheeran) and his own label’s producers Nemo and Vole.
