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MM Keeravani

Birth Name Koduri Keeravaani
Date of birth 1961-07-04
birth place Kovvur
spouse(s) Srivalli
children Kaala Bhairava
debut year 1990
debut movie Manasu Mamatha

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Overview

MM Keeravani is one of the very few music directors from Telugu who have a pan India presence. Having scored music for more than 100 films in various languages, he is known to be a well versed music composer of all moods and all genres.

Personal Life

MM Keeravani is born to Siva Shakthi Dutta, a famous lyricist in Telugu. He is born in Kovvur, West Godavari District inAndhra Pradesh on July 4^th 1961. His brother, Kalyani Malik is also a music composer. His Uncle Vijayendra Prasad is a famous writer in Tollywood and Famous director SS Rajamouli and Singer MM Sri Lekha are his cousins.

MM Keeravani married his close relative, Srivalli. She works for Rajamouli films as line producer and also heads Keeravani’s music label, Vel Records.
Career

Keeravani is interested in music since his childhood and his father duly encouraged him to learn music. His family moved to Madras after completion of Keeravani’s Intermediate in Kovvur and there he joined Music director Chakravarthygaru and worked almost 10 years with him. He also worked closely with lyricist VeturiSundara Ram Murthy garu for one year after that. He got his first break with Kalki movie produced by Suryanarayana Raju garu (Prabhas's father). Then, his second film was for Sriram Kumar (a.k.aRajababu, brother of Jayaprada) as a ghost music director. Kalki did not release and his second film credit did not fall in Keeravani's account. So his third film, Manasu-Mamata which released first is his first movie.

The big break for his career came in 1991 with SeethaRamayyagarimanavaralu and Ram Gopal Varma’s KshanaKshanam. The audio of KshanaKshanam was a super hit and from then there is no looking back for Keeravani. The very next year, he got to do two films with Chiranjeevi (Aapathbhaandhavudu, GharanaMogudu) one with Mohan Babu (AllariMogudu) and one with Nagarjuna (President gariPellam). Out of these AllariMogudu and GharanaMogudu were chartbusters.

Keeravani and Raghavender Rao’s combination was a deadly hot favorite then. They together worked for 17 films – out of them 14 were chartbusters. They also worked for devotional films like Annamayya, Sri Ramadasu, PanduRangadu and Shirdi Sai. Annamayya album is considered as one of the best albums ever in the Telugu film history. Way back in 2006, terms foiled between them but they duly repaired them and worked together later.

He had a very busy time in the 90s. He almost worked with all the stars for multiple times. AllariPriyudu, Criminal, SubhaSankalpam, Bombay Priyudu, Annamayya, PelliSandadi ended up fresh in the memories of Telugu people for a long time. However, Keeravani’s pace decreased after 2000 with the advent of Mani Sharma. He also chose to work selectively thereafter.Arundathi, Gangotri, Seethaiah, Vedam, Badrinath, Rajanna, Dammu are the notable albums (other than Rajamouli films) of Keeravani post 2000.

In 2001, SS Rajamouli’s first movie, Student No.1 released. The film hasRaghavender Rao supervising the direction and Keeravani scoring music. The album was a big hit and the film too. And from then, Keeravani worked for every Rajamouli film till Baahubali which is currently underway. All the albums in their combination and rerecording worked big time as they have good coordination between them.

Keeravani has slowed down in his career in his recent times. Off late, he has scored music for Sumanth’s Emo Gurram Eguravachu, Anamika directed by Sekhar Kammula and Dhikkulu Choodaku Ramayya.

Retirement:

Recently, Keeravani had announced that he will be retiring from music composition from December 8^th, 2016. Here is Keeravani’s statement on Facebook regarding it:

"I recorded my 1st song on 9th December 1989 at Prasad Studios Chennai. The very day I fixed my retirement day to be 8th December 2016 which i am planning to celebrate the day with my close associates and musicians, most likely at Prasad Studio, Hyderabad. So it is hardly 3 more years to go. Meanwhile I am happy to start this new journey on FB from tomorrow; details will be updated in the evening. I thank all of my fans who spared their time to express their likes, dislikes, advices and wishes to me all these years!!(Sic)”
Trivia
- Keeravani’s first break in his career was Ram Gopal Varma’s KshanaKshanam but the duo never worked together later. He also scored music for Vamsi under Creative director Vamsi’s direction and production but the combination never repeated due to creative differences between them.
- There are many films of Keeravani which are never released. The songs are lying idle after recording. He revealed that he is planning to make an album of those songs and release after his retirement.
- Keeravani sang more than 150 songs and even penned lyrics for a handful of songs.
- Keeravani is also a famous music director in Bollywood in 90s and is famous by the name ‘MM Kreem’. He is familiar to Tamil people as Maragatha Mani.
Upcoming Movies
- Baahubali directed by SS Rajamouli.

CAREER STATISTICS

Filmography: No.of Movies

Music Director: 44

awards

1992: Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Rajeswari Kalyanam

1993: Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Allari Priyudu

1993: Filmfare Best Music Director Award for Allari Priyudu

1995: Filmfare Best Music Director Award for Subha Sankalpam

1995: Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Pelli Sandhadi

1996: Filmfare Best Music Director Award for Pelli Sandadi

1997: National Film Award for Best Music Direction for Annamayya

2001: Nandi Award for Best Male Playback Singer for Student No. 1

2002: Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Okato Number Kurraadu

2003: Santosham Best Music Director Award for Gangotri

2005: Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Chatrapathi

2009: Nandi Award for Best Music Director for Vengamamba

2009: Filmfare Best Music Director Award for Magadheera

2010: Nandi Award for Best Male Playback Singer for Maryada Ramanna