Was researching and reading up for a piece on Tamil film music when I found an interesting bit of info.
The year was 1971.
The 'TVS Productions' was making a film named 'Uyir'. It had Muthuraman, Sarojadevi, Lakshmi, Balaji, Nagesh, among others, in the cast.
1/n
The year was 1971.
The 'TVS Productions' was making a film named 'Uyir'. It had Muthuraman, Sarojadevi, Lakshmi, Balaji, Nagesh, among others, in the cast.
1/n
The producer & director had fixed a new music director for the film and tentatively okayed his tunes. And they arranged for the film's puja & song recording. The day before the recording the young music director had gone to a temple as he had got a good break in the industry 2/n.
Upon his return, however, he was called by the makers of the movie and told that his tunes were not impressive and he was no longer the designated music director of the film.
They then picked another music director by name Ramana Sridhar. 3/n
They then picked another music director by name Ramana Sridhar. 3/n
On the scheduled day, they also recorded the songs set to tune by Ramana Sridhar. The film had 4 songs. The songs, sung by TMS and P Suseela and penned by Kannadasan (the biggest names in music industry then), were said to be passable, though they didn't become big hits. 4/n
Ramana Sridhar never really could achieve any kind of fame as a music director. He also tried his luck with another name Vijayaramani. That also didn't work. He also did some limited playback singing. And he eventually became a small-time actor. 5/n
He was better known as actor T S Raghavendra, who passed away last month. Vaidehi Kathirunthal, Sindhu Bhairavi were among his better known films as a character actor.
Interestingly, he composed music only for the songs in Uyir. 6/n
Interestingly, he composed music only for the songs in Uyir. 6/n
The background score was handled by a music director who was already a big name elsewhere but was making his debut in Tamil. That music director was: Salil Chowdhury. Why he handled only the RR and not the songs is not known. 7/n
And, oh yeah, the original music director who was rejected for this film at the last moment, had to wait for 5 more years to get his first break in the industry. He kind of did well with that long-delayed opportunity he got.
His name: Ilaiyaraaja. 8/8
His name: Ilaiyaraaja. 8/8
