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My first break

Devi Sri Prasad How it happened

I am basically a mandolin player. I learnt to play the instrument from Mandolin Srinivas. He taught me everything about creating good music and leading a balanced life. My father Sathyamurthy is a well-known name in the Telugu film industry and has written for some of the best films in Telugu. Popular filmmakers used to visit our house. I first composed a pop music album “Dance Party” that was brought out by Magnasound. One day producer M. S. Raju (who has produced hit films such as Okkadu in Telugu and Ghilli in Tamil) came to meet my father. He walked into my room and asked what I was doing. I played some music for him and he asked me to compose a song. After a couple days, he came to hear the song and was so impressed that he said I was the music director for his next venture Devi (in Telugu). In Tamil, my first film was Inidhu Inidhu Kadhal Inidhu, a remake of the Telugu film Anandam, whose hit music was also scored by me.

How it felt

I was delighted that I had turned a music director. I started doing films in Tamil as well as Telugu. I scored the music for Sachin (starring Vijay), Mayavi and Aaru (with Suriya as the hero). Then came Unakkum Enakkum Something Something and now, Santhosh Subramanium. When I was young I would be thrilled to see master musicians at work in the studios. Today I am happy to do recording in the same studios.

How life changed

Life has not changed one bit except that now I am a known person and I can see it when I step out of home. I am generally bound to my studio as my hands are full with assignments. I enjoyed working for Dasavatharam. It’s a milestone film in my career. I am also looking forward to Kandasamy (Vikram-starrer) and Villu (with Vijay) and some big banner Telugu movies.