Two decades of enthusiasm and pep in Telugu Music - Devi Sri Prasad

Every decade in Telugu Cinema, we get a composer who could turn your head from regular songs and capture your imagination. When Saluri Rajeswara Rao, Pendyala Narasimha Rao, TV Raju and Ghantasala were ruling the roost, KV Mahadevan entered the scene as a change in 60's. Along with him Venu Master and few others came, had their big success but KV Mahadevan had his own stamp of authority. His albums for Mooga Manasulu, Buddimanthudu, Sampoorna Ramayanam, Manchi Manasulu, Prem Nagar, Dasarabullodu, Shankarabharanam are few examples of his versatile talent.

In late 1970's Chakravarthy took over the scene with his ethnic flavour, folk music and complete beat oriented music for commercial films. He scored music for Khaidi, Yamagola, Premabhishekham, Vijetha and many more. His western beats and Indian folk entertained audiences till Ilayaraja took over the scene in 1985 but Chakravarthy persisted long.

During Ilayaraja domination Telugu cinema slowly saw rise of Raj-Koti and MM Keeravani who ruled the 1990's. Koti and Keeravani were the first choice of many directors till Mani Sharma wave started. With Mani Sharma taking over the scene, commercial films changed the beats to stylish Indie-western from Rock based sounds of Raj-Koti and modernised Telugu beats of MM Keeravani.

Slowly in early 2000's an young kid started making his presence felt and Anandam gave him a chance to explore pop, indie-rock and modern classical. He found a huge admiration among young crowds and then he got a chance to go old world jazz and classic western with Indian classical with Manmadhudu. He gave desi beats and rhythms an unique texture with western pep. Beats had melody and freshness that seemed lacking in popular composers.

He delivered complete youth centric melodies and rock based songs in Arya which made him most sought after composer. He expanded his horizon with Venky, where he gave desi folk a peppy rhythmic boost and proved with Mass that he can come up with commercial cinema typical albums too.

Shankar Dada MBBS, Bommarillu, Bunny, Arya-2, Ready, Jagadam, King, Jalsa made him grow into a regular over the decade by 2010. Yes, we are talking about Devi Sri Prasad, who turned into Rockstar DSP with these albums.

From 2011, he concentrated on his weaknesses like Background score so much that his score for Mirchi, Nenokkadine, Nannaku Prematho have separate fans. He scored big hit albums to every actor starting from Chiranjeevi - Shankar Dada MBBS, Khaidi No.150, Nagarjuna - Manmadhudu, Mass, Balakrishna - Legend, Venkatesh - Tulasi, F2, Ravi Teja - Venky, Pawan Kalyan - Jalsa, Attharintiki Daredi, Gabbar Singh, Mahesh Babu - Sreemanthudu, Maharshi, Bharat Ane Nenu, Jr. NTR - Nannaku Prematho, Janatha Garage, Prabhas - Mirchi, Mr. Perfect, Allu Arjun - Arya, Bunny, Arya-2, Julayi, S/O Satyamurthy, Iddarammayilatho, Duvvada Jagannadam, Ram Charan - Rangasthalam, Ram - Ready, Jagadam and many more.

He seems to have given a new pep to the music of Telugu Cinema and even expanded his wings Tamil Cinema has he scored for Ajith, Vijay, Suriya, Vikram movies like Veeram, Puli, Singham-1&2, Aaru, Kandasamy, Saamy Square and few others. He scored for Salman Khan movie Ready and got a name that he is an expert in Item songs. But he proved that he is an all-rounder who can give his touch, his style of rhythm to even regular songs.

As his music seems to be going through a phase change with seniority and expectations from him have gone to sky high with new kids knocking on the door, he might have to re-invent himself at this juncture but from Devi to his recent, Maharshi, in two decades he managed to grow far bigger than any one could imagine and 2010's definitely belong to him without any doubt. We wish him a Happy Birthday for giving us many memorable songs and hope to see him continue on his merry way to please our ears further in coming years. HBD Rockstar DSP!