Kuldeep Manak

Early life Manak was born as Latif Mohammed on 15 November 1951 to Nikka Khan in Mirasi family, in the village of Jalal Yudhvir is following in his father's footsteps as a singer.

Career Manak learned music under Ustad Khushi Muhammad Qawwal in village Bhuttiwala at Muktsar. He left Bathinda and went to Ludhiana to pursue his career as a singer and started singing with the duo Harcharan Grewal and Seema. he was given the chance to record the song with Seema. His first record features this song along with "laung karaa mittra, machhli paunge maape" (written by Gurdev Singh Maan).

Politics

Manak took part in the parliament elections of 1996 as an independent member from Bathinda, but did not win.

Illness and death Manak was admitted to emergency care in July 2011 due to lower gastrointestinal bleeding. While he was discharged from emergency care when his condition stabilized, his son was still admitted in DMC ludhiana undergoing treatment for a mental illness due to which Manak suffered a tremendous amount of stress.

Manak was later admitted to DMC Ludhiana due pneumonia on 28 November 2011 and he died on 30 November due to complications.

He was buried in his native village, Jalal at Bathinda (Punjab)on 2 December 2011.

In popular culture

On 25 December 2012, a tribute single was released by Aman Hayer under Moviebox Records with the title "The Folk King" (subtitled "Ustaad Kuldeep Manak Ji Tribute"), featuring a number of artists interpreting his songs. The track was first played and performed at the Britasia Music Awards 2012 by Angrej Ali who started the song with "Vaar Banda Bahadur", with which Ustaad Kuldeep Manak Ji used to start his shows. The final song sung in this tribute was "Tere Tille Ton" by Jazzy B, a close student of Ustaad Kuldeep Manak Ji.

Manak's songs were featured in the movie Punjab 1984 starring Diljit Dosanjh and Pavan Malhotra as a tribute to him. The main character, Shivjeet, is an avid fan of Manak and his songs are played at suspenseful moments of the film.