Vidyasagar

Biography

Vidyasagar Rao (born 2 March 1963) is an Indian composer, musician, and singer who works predominantly in the Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu film industries. 

After working with several composers as an assistant and conductor, Vidyasagar made his debut as a film composer in the 1989 Tamil film Poo Manam and was nicknamed Melody King Working for over 225 feature films.

 he is the recipient of a National Award, multiple State Awards, and five Filmfare Awards and is widely regarded as one of the finest and most acclaimed composers in the history of Indian Cinema.

Vidyasagar was born into a Telugu-speaking family of Ramachandra Rao, a musician, and Sooryakantham in Amalapuram, Andhra Pradesh.  

He was named after the 19th-century social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. He was brought up in Bobbili.

 He underwent Carnatic vocals training first and then started taking classical guitar classes in Chennai from Master Dhanraj along with A. R. Rahman and then later piano.

Vidyasagar became an independent film composer with the song En Anbe in the 1989 Tamil movie Poomanam.

 Vidyasagar started his music career with a Tamil film, he gained recognition well in the Tamil music industry at a later stage. He shifted base to Telugu cinema in 1989.

In 1994–95, Vidyasagar was approached by Tamil actor-director Arjun, with whom he worked for many musical films like Jai Hind, Karna, and Subash. Their combination resulted in acclaimed Tamil language melodic songs like Malare and Padu Padu.

From 1996 to 2001 Vidyasagar mainly concentrated on Malayalam films. During this period, Vidyasagar also composed a few Tamil movies like Nilaave Vaa and Uyirodu Uyiraga. 

He won three Kerala State Film Awards. About his stint in the Malayalam Cinema, Vidyasagar was quoted saying "I believe that it was a God-sent opportunity for me to work in one of the finest film industries".

From the year 2002, he started composing soundtracks for Dhil, Run, Dhool, Ghilli, etc. in Tamil and Summer in Bethlehem, Meesha Madhavan, Kilichundan Mampazham, Pattalam, C.I.D. Moosa etc. in Malayalam.

 His Bollywood venture Hulchul directed by Priyadarshan was a box-office blockbuster, but the songs only became nominal hits, not bringing him the acclaim he was usually used to in Tamil and Malayalam films.

During this period, Vidyasagar composed his first English language feature, Beyond The Soul, a low-budget independent film directed by Rajiv Anchal.

Between 2003 and 2005, he composed songs for several notable films like Anbe Sivam, Madhurey, Kochi Rajavu, Ji and Chandrolsavam in 2004–05. 

The year 2005 saw Vidyasagar receiving his first National Film Award for his music in the Telugu film Swarabhishekam directed by K. Vishwanath. 

The music in the film was predominantly Carnatic. The same year, he composed music for the film Chandramukhi.