G. K. Vengkatesh

Gurjada Krishnadas Venkatesh (GKV) (21 September 1927, Hyderabad, British India - November 1993) was a famous music director for Tamil, Kannada and Telugu movies.

Early life

He learned music since young and was very talented. Even as a child, he was appreciated by the Raja of Bobbili. He learned veenai from his elder brother G. K. S. Pathi. As a teenager, he played veenai for the great music directors such as S. V. Venkataraman , S. M. Subbaiah Naidu and C. R. Subburaman.

GKV was also a talented singer. Before entering to cinema, he was singing in the in Bangalore All India Radio. He had done chorus under S. V. Venkataraman for Meera.

Career Life

He became a close friend to M. S. Viswanathan (MSV) while working under S. M. Subbaiah Naidu during the late 1940s. They share a same room in Jupiter Lodge, Madras when MSV was offered to compose some songs for Genova. When N. S. Krishnan offered an opportunity to M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy to compose music for Panam (1952) for Madras Pictures, GKV became a part of their troupe. He had a chance to sing Ezhayin Kovilai Naadinaen in Panam which was also Sivaji Ganesan’s second film. He was named as their assistant by M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy.

In 1952, he composed music independently for a Malayalam film, which was also dubbed in Tamil as Nadigai. In 1955, he started to compose music for a Kannada film named Sodari starring Rajkumar (his second film) and Pandaribai along with H. R. Padmanabha Shastry. Since then he became a much sought after and one of the successful music directors in Kannada films along with T. G. Lingappa and Vijayabhaskar. His was showered with offers where he composed music from Ohileshwara (1955) till Kalitaaru Henne (1963) in a row. GKV launched P. B. Sreenivos as a successful in Kannada films.

He came back to Tamil films in 1964 for Thirumagal Films movie Magale Un Samathu. Since then he began to compose music fro both Tamil and Kannada films.

In the late 1960s, it is notable that Ilaiyaraja and L Vaidhiyanathan were playing instruments under GKV's troupe, assisting to compose music.

GKV acted in the role of Mohan’s musician father in AVM Productions ’s Mella Thirandhadhu Kadhavu in 1986. His dialogues were dubbed by V. Gopalakrishnan. The music directors were M. S. Viswanathan and Ilaiyaraja.

In 1987, GKV produced the Ramarajan and Revathi starrer Gramathu Minnal Tamil film.

GKV passed away in November 1993.