Music is eternal. The role of a song in a film’s success is quite vital and it is needless to explain about it. If a song reaches out to the crowd, huge relief occurs about the success of the film. It is perhaps because of this reason the movie producers are extremely careful about music. Even the heroes get those songs specially composed in order to suit their style and attitude. Though the director is the captain of a ship called film, but the buoys of the ship are undoubtedly the Hero, Cameraman, Director and of course the Music director.
Surprisingly, the film industry is now facing a different situation. There is an exceeding scarcity of Music directors in the industry. Telugu Film Music is revolving around either two or three Music directors. Apart from Devi Sri Prasad and Thaman, no other Music director’s name is being heard. Most of the big films are bagged by these two. Does this mean there are no other music directors in Telugu Film Industry? Or are they not talented enough? The problem is not having enough Music directors but unable to use the available talent in right proportions. Music Directors like Keeravani, Koti, Mani Sharma, Chakri, Ramana Gogula, Kalyani Malik and Mickey.J.Meyer are quite competent. They already proved their worth with great music in the past. But their tunes are not much heard these days in the new films. The reason being - they are not much in form off late.
Keeravani music always oozes out the Telugu flavor and most of his songs have audible lyrics. Being a lover of Telugu Language himself, great Telugu words are heard in Keeravani’s music. He is capable of composing music for musicals such as Annamayya and Sri Ramadasu. But currently, Keeravani is confining to only S.S.Rajamouli and K.Raghavendra Rao. It is very rare to see Keeravani compose music for other movie directors. While Keeravani himself is rejecting some projects because he didn’t like the story or the ways of the director, some directors themselves are taking him off because of his rigidness in working style. The main complaint against Keeravani is that he doesn’t give songs which would suit the current trend. Koti also is stuck in the same situation. He gave so many hit songs in his music career but despite that, he is forced to sit idle without any projects on hand.
At one point of time, whenever a leading hero’s film arrived - the first name to be heard in music department was Mani Sharma. He composed music for every lead hero such as Chiranjeevi, Balakrishna, Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, Mahesh Babu and Pawan Kalyan. The film producers used to particularly vouch for Mani Sharma and get him do their film. When three films released for the festive season of Sankranthi - all of them had Mani Sharma as the music director. Mani Sharma and Mahesh Babu combination became like a sentiment. Mani Sharma and B.Gopal had almost all hits in their association. Mani Sharma is known for his best re-recording skills as well. He is equally skilled for composing melody as well as fast paced numbers. Even such great composer Mani Sharma’s era has almost come to an end now. Aspects such as series of flops, lack of freshness in songs, and unable to compete with the new age music directors cater to this situation.
Chakri was a different music director who enthralled the Telugu Audience with his song Vennello Hai Hai. He zoomed to heights with series of successful films. It was in fact Chakri who kept a check for already existing popular music directors such as Keeravani and Mani Sharma. He played a vital role in the success behind Puri Jagannath’s films. Itlu Sravani Subhrahmanyam, Idiot, Amma Nanna O Tamil Ammai were a series of hit films from Chakri. He even got a chance to work with big heroes with this success and reached the milestone of 100 films in a short span of time. Once he had handful of projects but now he does not have one. Working for every film which came on hand, and composing for small film and big film alike damaged his reputation. When he had a big film like Simha in hand, Chakri used to agree for some anonymous project as well. As a result, he laid the foundations for his own downfall.
Coming to Ramana Gogula, he earned the name in a short notice and spoilt it too. Gogula’s Music came to such a state that it is called as Gola (“Chaos”) now. Kalyani Malik and Mickey J.Meyer’s careers are almost in the same line. They did give some good music but they are confined to only melody songs. They could not deliver those songs which could zoom into the hearts of the listener. Many directors who worked with them got hits with their work, and when they got better opportunities – they moved on to other options.
This is the actual story. That is why Devi Sri Prasad and Thaman are ruling the industry now and whatever they say is taken as a rule. Nothing is out of hands though. Everyone needs just one hit to prove their worth and these directors still have it. If the upcoming projects Baahubali (Keeravani), 1000 Abaddalu (Ramana Gogula), Rey (Chakri), Anthaku Mundhu Aa Taruvatha (Kalyani Malik) and their music becomes successful, it can be said that these music directors will be back with a bang. Let us hope that day is close by.
