Remembering music composer G.K. Venkatesh on his 98th Birth Anniversary.

Music composer G.K. Venkatesh was born into a Telugu family on 21 September 1927.

He began his career as an assistant to music composer S.M. Subbiah Naidu who was the Guru of M.S. Viswanathan. Venkatesh and Viswanathan stayed in the same lodge while MSV was composing for Genoa, and they became very close friends.

When T.K. Ramamoorthy and M.S. Viswanatahan were signed on to become independent music composers for the first time in Panam (the second film of Sivaji Ganesan), the duo included Venkatesh as their assistant. He also sang a song in Panam titled Yezhaiyin Kovilai Nadinaen,

Later that year, Venkatesh got the opportunity to compose music for a Malayalam film, which was dubbed into Tamil as Nadigai.

Three years later – in 1955 – he was signed on to score music for his first Kannada film. This was the break he needed and he was flooded with offers, soon turning him into one of the leading composers in the Kannada film field., and is credited as the music composer who introduced P.B. Sreenivas to Kannada films.

In 1961, when Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy were working on the film Paava Manippu, they recorded three versions of the song Vandha Naall Mudhal – one with G.K. Venkatesh, one with T.M. Soundararajan and one with both their voices.

He returned to Tamil film music in 1964 for the film Naanum Manithan Thaan which starred Anandan and Chandrakantha in the lead roles.

This was followed by another Tamil film, Magalle un Samathu, after which he continued to compose for Tamil and Kannada films.

Venkatesh was noted for his varied instrumentation that had a distinct western flavour. He is credited for modernising background scores in Kannada films.

In 1969 he employed a new assistant called Raja and they worked on more than 200 films together. This Raja would later make his debut as a music composer in Annakilli and be rechristened as Illaiyaraja.

In 1986, when M.S. Viswanathan and Illaiyaraja came together to score music for the Mohan-Radha-Amala starrer, Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu, they persuaded Venkatesh to play a small role in the film as Mohan’s father.

In 1987 he produced the Ramarajan-Revathi starrer, Gramathu Minnal and engaged Illaiyaraja to score the music.

G.K. Venkatesh passed away on 13 November 1993 at the age of 66. His friendship with T.K. Ramamoorthy, M.S. Viswanathan and Illaiyaraja remained strong and close.

His granddaughter, Vani Harikrishna, is a playback singer. Personal Footnote: In compiling this playlist, I had the pleasure of listening to some absolute gems from G.K. Venkatesh. I hope you enjoy the selection as much as I did.