Ananya Birla – Musician and singer from Birla business family

Ananya Birla is a singer and song writer associated with independent music of pop and Electropop genres of western music since 2016. She is a member of the famous Birla business family and a 6^th generation family member. Her father Kumar Mangalam Birla serves as the Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, the third-largest private sector conglomerate in India. She is an active mental health campaigner and also owns her own e-commerce venture. She is the founder-chairwomen of Svatantra Microfin company, which she started during her initial days in the world of finance.

Ananya Birla was born in 1991 into a family of 6 generations of business tradition. She is the eldest of 6 children of Kumar Mangalam Birla, one among the richest businessmen from India. Ananya got drawn towards music during childhood and started learning santoor at the age of 11. It was during her graduation days at Oxford, when her career reached full swing. She started writing songs and also performed at pubs and clubs. She also played guitar for those performances. Later she discontinued her graduation and fully concentrated on to a career in music.

Her debut single, “Livin’ the Life” was released in 2016, followed by Meant to Be, Circles, Hold On, Blackout, Better, Unstoppable and Disappear. Her EPS Fingerprint was released in 2019. Most of her singles have an international release.

Ananya Birla – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She is the first Indian artiste to get a worldwide release through PM:AM Recordings.

2. She is the first Indian artiste with an English single to go platinum. Her second single Meant to Be (2017) got this credit.

3. Her company Svatantra Microfin provides microfinance to women in rural India. She was only 17 when she started the company.

4. Along with her mother, she set up a mental health initiative called MPower soon after returning from England. It aims at removing stigma of Indian people towards mental illness.

5. Her younger brother Aryaman Birla is a cricketer.

6. Her paternal grandfather Aditya Vikram Birla and paternal great-grandfather Basant Kumar Birla were industrialists, and paternal grandmother Padmabhushan Rajashree Birla was a philanthropist. Her paternal great-grandmother Sarla Birla was a businesswoman. 

7. Through her paternal great-grandmother Sarla Birla, she is linked to Brajlal Biyani, independent activist. Sarla Birla was the daughter of Brajlal Biyani.

8. Ghanshyam Das Birla, Rameswar Das Birla, Baldeo Das Birla, Krishna Kumar Birla, Ganga Prasad Birla, Chandrakant Birla and Yasovardhan Birla are some other prominent figures of Birla family belonging to different generations. Most of them were associated with business and well-known industrialists. 

9. She has two siblings, one brother and one sister. She chose music while her brother Aryaman chose cricket, and both are not interested in following family legacy. 

10. Seth Shobharam, grandson of Seth Bhudharmal, who lived in the early 19^th century, was the first one from Birla family who got into trade and business. He was a local trader. It was his son, Seth Shiv Narayana in the second half of 19^th century who ventured business outside their hometown Pilani, now a part of Rajasthan. Birla industrial family flourished since then.

11. Shobhana Bhartia (daughter of Krishna Kumar Birla) is perhaps the most prominent female member of Birla family (Rajashree Birla and Sarla Birla being daughter-in-laws). She is the Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group, inherited from her father.