Darshanam Mogilaiah Age, Wife, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Other Name	Kinnera Mogulaiah
Profession(s)	Musician, Singer
Physical Stats
Height (approx.)	5′ 7″ (170 cm)
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Salt and Pepper
Career
Debut	Telegu Film Song: Title track of the music album Bheemla Nayak (2022)
Award & Honour	• Ugadi Puruskaram (2015) • Padma Shri Award(2022)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	Year, 1951
Age (as of 2024)	73 Years
Birthplace	Ausalikunta village, Nagarkurnool district, Telangana, India
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Telangana, India
Caste	Madiga
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Widower
Family
Wife/Spouse	Deceased
Children	9 Son- Mahender
Parents	Father– Yellaiah

Some Lesser Known Facts About Darshanam Mogilaiah

• Darshanam Mogilaiah belongs to a Dalit family in Telangana along the stretches of Nallamala Hills.

• At the age of eight, he travelled along with his father and learned to play kinnera.

• The tradition of playing kinnera came from Darshanam’s ancestors who started playing the instrument 400 years ago at the court of the Raja of Wanaparthy in Hyderabad.

• Before getting recognition as an artist, he worked as a daily wage labourer for 14 years in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, and Mumbai.

• Darshanam reinvented the instrument kinnera by making it a 12 stair instrument with metal strings. Earlier, his forefathers used to make kinnera with eight to nine stairs built with women’s hair, horse-tail, and used animal nerves as strings.
  

  Darshanam Mogilaiah holding kinnera

• His songs comprise folk tales of local heroes over five decades, heroes who helped the poor such as Pandugolla Sayanna, Endavetla Pakiriah, and Miya Saab.

• In 2013, his contribution towards keeping his tradition alive was incorporated as a lesson in the textbooks of class eight students of Telangana state as an honour by the Telangana State government.

• According to sources, of his nine children, three of them died from health issues, three were married and three others were students.

• He received Rs 1 crore cash from the Telangana government for reinventing the Kinnera instrument.

• As of 2024, he was in the headlines after his video went viral where he was seen working as a labourer at the construction site in Turkayamjal.
  

  Darshanam Mogilaiah working on a construction site as a labourer

• According to the sources, in 2024, he claimed that one of his sons suffers from seizures due to which he needs more than Rs 7000 a month for his son’s medical expenses and to sustain.

• According to sources, he had spent Rs 1 crore on his three children’s weddings, building a house in Turkayamjal which had to be stopped as he ran out of funds.

• According to sources, in 2024, his Rs 10,000 monthly honorarium was stopped and the 600 sq yard allotted in Rangareddy district by the government of Telangana was still pending.