Tribal Singer Nanjiyamma Buys New Kia Sonet SUV

The national award-winning playback singer hails from Kerala’s Attappady

Nanjiyamma, the award-winning tribal singer from Kerala has bought a brand-new Kia Sonet SUV! The 65-year-old artist hails from Attappady in Kerala, and rose to massive acceptance for her work in the 2020 Malayalam movie ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’.

Nanjiyamma has bought the HTK+ variant of the Sonet, in the beautiful shade of Aurora Black. The purchase was made from Incheon Kia, the Korean brand’s dealer partner in Kochi. The dealership shared a video on their social handles that shows a happy Nanjiyamma taking delivery of her new ride and singing the ‘Kalakkatha Sandana Meram’ song that gave her all the fame, together with the dealer staff.

This song, in fact, has its roots in the Irula community. It was written and sung by Nanjiyamma, as starred as the movie’s title track. She was awarded the ’68th National Award for the Best Female Playback Singer’.

Nanjiyamma got a lot of offers for other movies after her song went viral on the internet. A folksinger at Azad Kala Samithi, she’s lately been doing a lot of shows in India and abroad. Moreover, she currently has her own Youtube channel running, which details on ‘life in Attappady’ (culture, cooking and agricultural practices etc) and the indigenous songs there.

Nanjiyamma’s Kia Sonet: Key Highlights

Kia Sonet made its India debut in 2020, and has since been doing well in sales. The sub compact SUV has a total of 23 variants spread across 6 trimlines, and multiple powertrain configurations. While the pool of options could be confusing to many, Nanjiyamma has bought the HTK+ variant with the 1.2L petrol engine. The car wears a license plate that reads  ‘KL 50L 0224’.

Kia Sonet is priced in the 7.15-14.89 lakh range, ex-showroom. The variant that Nanjiyamma owns, has an ex-showroom price of 9.64 lakh. Check out our article to explore the Sonet in detail.

Kia Sonet: Quick Highlights And Details

The Sonet is a high-volume seller for Kia in India. It has had minimal overhauls since its 2020 debut, and still manages to impress the crowds in 2023. The outgoing model is feature-packed, good-looking, and comes with a set of interesting powertrains. It has improved significantly on safety, and now offers four airbags as standard. The top-spec variants get a slew of advanced safety tech.

The new Kia Sonet can be had with NA petrol, turbo petrol and diesel engines. The 1.2 NA petrol delivers 82 hp while the 1.0L turbo petrol has 118 hp on offer. The 1.5L diesel excels with its fuel efficiency and has up to 113 hp on offer. Available gearbox options include 5MT, 6MT, 6 iMT, 6AT and 7 DCT.

This KIA car would rank high in both the ‘best SUV under 10 lakh’ and ‘best SUV under 15 lakh’ lists, if we are to make them now. The manufacturer is expected to bring in the heavily updated Sonet sometime towards the end of this year. Test mules of the new Sonet have already been spied on test.

Kia India seems to be keeping its crowd busy with special editions and new colour schemes till the arrival of the upcoming model.

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