Background and career
Gurdas Maan (born 4 January 1957) is an Indian singer, songwriter and actor mainly associated with Punjabi language music and films. He gained national attention in 1980 with the song "Dil Da Mamla Hai". Since then, he had gone on to record over 34 albums and had written over 305 songs. In 2015 he performed on the song "Ki Banu Dunia Da" with Diljit Dosanjh in MTV Coke Studio India that was aired in season 4 episode 5 (16 August 2015) on MTV India. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and the most influential Punjabi musicians of all time.
Maan was born to Gurdev Singh and Tej Kaur in Giddarbaha, Punjab and is a native of the town. He did his initial schooling from Giddarbaha and completed his graduation from DAV college, Malout. He was interested in music and mimicry since childhood.
Maan initially worked in the electricity board, a job he was offered by officials he met at a singing event. In 1980, a producer approached him to perform the song "Dil Da Mamla Hai" in DD National. Maan shot to fame with "Dil Da Mamla Hai." Soon after that came "Mamla Gadbad Hai" and "Chhalla", the latter being the hit film song from the Punjabi film Long Da Lishkara (1983), which Maan recorded under the music direction of legendary Jagjit Singh. During the late 1980s and 1990s, Maan became one of the leading figures in the growing Punjabi music scene. The increased demand for Punjabi pop among audiences in Punjab and the Punjabi diaspora helped create a new generation of Punjabi singing stars, with The Caravan identifying Maan as the best-known of these artists. He released more than ten albums during the 1990s, drawing on folk music and helping pave the way for the subsequent bhangra boom. He sang a new rendition of his popular track, "Ki Banu Duniya Da" on Coke Studio with singer Diljit Dosanjh. The song was released on 15 August 2015 and hit more than 32 million views on YouTube in one week. He further reunited with Dosanjh to sing a new rendition of another one of his tracks, "Challa" in 2023.
Maan is the only Punjabi singer to win the National Award for Best Male Playback Singer at the 54th National Film Awards for building the entire narrative through his singing of Heer in Waris Shah: Ishq Daa Waaris. The said film also entered the race for consideration in the 79th Academy Awards. The entry was made by India Waves TV, San Francisco, California on behalf of USA distributors of the film Golden Palm Entertainment Inc. On other fronts, Maan has starred in blockbuster Bollywood films and has received numerous awards, including the Jury's Award, presented to him by the president of India in 2005. In 2009, he won "Best International Album" at the UK Asian Music Awards for "Boot Polishan". In 2017, he won the Filmfare Award for Living Legend in the first Filmfare Awards Punjabi event.
Aside from singing in Punjabi, he is fluent in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Haryanvi and Rajasthani. As an actor, he has performed in Punjabi, Hindi and Tamil movies, making his film debut in Mamla Garbar Hai (1983), which became a commercial success and contributed to renewed interest in Punjabi cinema, but he is best known for his starring role in Waris Shah: Ishq Daa Waaris, a depiction of the Punjabi poet Waris Shah during the creation of his epic poem Heer Ranjha, again co-starring Juhi Chawla and Divya Dutta. He made a special appearance in Veer-Zaara with Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta.
He is married to Manjeet Maan. They have a son, Gurickk Maan, who is married to actress Simran Kaur Mundi. At a village near Karnal, Haryana, India on 20 January 2007 Maan was involved in a car accident in which his Range Rover was hit and severely damaged by a truck. Maan escaped with minor injuries on his face, hands, and chest. His driver Ganesh was injured seriously but recovered soon after. This was the second car accident of two that Gurdas Maan was involved in. The first accident was a head-on collision between Maan's vehicle and a truck on 9 January 2001 at a village near Rupnagar, Punjab. In this accident Maan's driver Tejpal died. Maan later admitted that his driver asked him to wear his seat belt minutes before the accident. Maan believes that if it had not been for his driver's advice, he would have been dead as well. Later he wrote and performed a song "Baithi sade naal savari utter gayi" dedicated to his driver, who was also his good friend. In a newspaper interview Maan revealed to the Express & Star, that he is an avid supporter of Manchester United football club. His mother, Tej Kaur, died in 2016.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
