This article may require copy editing for grammar and cleanup of translation/ non-english speaker article. You can assist by editing it. (April 2012)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Vidyasagar (Telugu: విద్యాసాగర్, Tamil: வித்யாசாகர்) is an award-winning Indian film music director and music composer in the Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi film industries.^[1] He is very popular in South Indian music industry and best known for his soulful melodies. His fast numbers to many films have earned him much fame too. He has worked with almost all the leading film makers and leading heroes of his time. Though he is born Telugu, his major hits are in Tamil and Malayalam films. He is also a recipient of the prestigious National Award which is recognized throughout the country. He won also 4 Filmfare Award for Best Music Director (Malayalam)

Biography[link]

Vidyasagar was born into a Telugu Niyogi Brahmin family of musicians and brought up in Chennai. His father U. Ramachander was a musician who could play eight instruments^{[citation needed]} and his grandfather Varaha Narasimha Murthy was the court 'Vidhwan' for the king of Vijayanagaram Bobili in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Vidyasagar started learning vocal classical music and harmonium from his father at the age of four. When he was eight-years-old Vidyasagar joined Dhanraj Master. In fact both A. R. Rahman and Vidyasagar had joined on the same day. Vidyasagar learnt guitar for 3–4 years there, then the piano. Vidyasagar studied Western classical music at the Trinity College of Music, London.

At age of eleven, Vidyasagar knew how to play a dozen musical instruments and signed up to work as a regular musician for many music directors. Vidyasagar could play for all languages because then, most films had their recording at Chennai. Vidyasagar wanted to then compose his own tunes and have someone else play them. He had assisted various music directors and even done ghost music for some of them. So he had the experience and wanted to compose independently.

1989 to 1996[link]

Vidyasagar became an independent music director with the song "En Anbe" in the 1989 Tamil movie 'Poomanam' directed by Rajasekhar (Robert). Though Vidyasagar started his music career with a Tamil film, recognition in Tamil music industry came to him much later. He shifted base to Telugu and from 1993 to 1996, Vidyasagar became the top music director in Telugu.

In 1994-95, Vidyasagar was picked up by Tamil actor-director Arjun, with whom he worked for many musically acclaimed films like 'Jai Hind', 'Karna', 'Subash', 'Ayutha Poojai' and 'Sengottai'. Vidyasagar composed some of his best music for Arjun's films with some melodic numbers like 'Malare', 'Bhoomiae', and 'Padu Padu' some of which went unnoticed. After a not so impressive start in Tamil film industry Vidyasagar was discovered by Malayalam film industry.

1996 to 2002[link]

From 1996 to 2001 Vidyasagar mainly concentrated on Malayalam films where he became the top music director. In Malayalam right from his first film "Azhagiya Ravanan" to "Meesa Madhavan" he struck the right cord. He has created scores in which ragas and rhythms combined to a good melody, which even bagged him four Kerala State Awards. Vidyasagar's love for melody has made him turn to Malayalam film industry time and again, and the songs in hit films like Azhagiya Ravanan, Indraprastham, Varnapakittu, Meesa Madhavan, Gramaphone, CID Moosa and Kilichundan Mambazham were all well received.

His career best was "Millennium Stars"(1999), in Malayalam, which was a WorldClass soundtrack. Some songs were bilingual, and India's best singers, Dr. K.J. Yesudas and Hariharan rendered these songs together. Songs like "Parayan Njaan Marannu" and "Shravan Gange" in this movie, were truly of the class of the world's top soundtracks.

During this period, Vidyasagar's song compositions in Tamil movies like 1998 Vijay starrer "Nilaave Vaa" and "Uyirodu Uyiraaga" starring Ajith did catch attention and became quite popular but still the bad patch in Tamil films continued for Vidyasagar during this period. Vidyasagar was probably the only composer in South India who has delivered many super hit songs during his early days but was not considered a success. Even today, some of Vidyasagar's prior songs composed for movies are sung by music troupes. But the total success of the film counts ultimately because the music director will be identified with the film.

Nowadays Vidya Sagar is the best business consultant of the I-sys school.

2001 to 2010[link]

After a successful Malayalam career he made a come back into Tamil with "Dhill" and "Poovellam Un Vasam". Songs in both of these films were instant hits. In 2003, he composed songs for Anbe Sivam and Run which are still a treat to one's ears nearly a decade after. Then came " ^[2] The year 2004 saw Vidyasagar come up with "Ghilli" which was an instant hit with song 'Appadi Podu Podu' ruling the charts in Tamil music world. This was followed by other hits like Madhurey, "London" and "Ji" in 2004-05. In the year 2005 Vidyasagar received National Award for the Telugu movie Swarabhishekam by K. Vishwanath featuring carnatic classical music.^[3] Vidyasagar continued his success spree by composing music for Rajnikanth starrer 'Chandramukhi' (he mentions this as a call from God), which was the biggest hit of the year 2005 and a comeback movie for Rajnikanth. The audio of the movie was a best seller and the BGM (Back Ground Music) of the film was also released for the first time in the Indian music industry. He has composed music for the Hollywood movie "Beyond the Soul" directed by Rajeev Anchal. The 2004-05 year also saw him score music for the Hindi movie Hulchul from Priyadarshan. With Mozhi, Vidyasagar once again gave listeners some songs like "Katrin Mozhiye" and "Sevvanam Selaikatti" which were instant hits of 2007. In 2008 Vidyasagar came with chart topping songs for Kuruvi starring Vijay. "Kuruvi"'s music was well received by music critics and Vijay's fans. In 2008-2009, Vidyasagar gave multiple melodious hits for the movie Abhiyum Naanum. The song 'Va Va En Dhevadhaye', which expresses the bond between a father and daughter is considered to be one of the best lilting melodies of the year. Also, his brilliant score for Karunanidhi's novel based Tamil film Ilaignan is considered to be one of the career best scores for its grand orchestrations. Meanwhile in the Malayalam industry, his fame rose with the compositions in Chandrolsavam and Rasikan which had multiple musical hits. Ranjith, the director of Chandrolsavam recalled him for the movie Rock N Roll, with which he made another return with a viral hit "Chandamama". His "Anuraga Vilochananayi" song from Neelathamara the movie, was also a chart-buster and a path-breaking song for Shreya Ghoshal in malayalam. His latest Malayalam works are Spanish Masala, Ordinary which hit the silver screen recently and the upcoming releases being Diamond Necklace and Nadodi Mannan.

Vidyasagar was now a well-known figure in the Tamil film music, often for his hugely popular numbers composed for movies starring Tamil stars Vijay, Ajith and Vikram. As said by Vidyasagar in an interview about recognition for music, "When success eludes you, nobody is bothered about you, what you know and what you could do. That is why mediocrity succeeds. If you are successful, nobody questions your knowledge.". He is the only person following classical music nowadays. Only two persons have composed pure (with out combination)in the raga called Gambeera Naatai. One being Vidyasagar and the other Raju Krishnamoorthy. "The musical maestro" described singer shanker mahadevan about vidyasagar in an interview. Then singers rimi tomy and madhubalakrishnan mentioned that, it is vidyasagar who made them who they are now. Many of the young music directors have worked with vidyasagar, mainly Deepak Dev. Deepak dev said in an interview that his most of the trail and error was with vidyaji, and he owes a lot to vidyaji. Vidyasagar is well noted for his great orchestration in his songs, the chords pattern and progressions used in his songs had always been very unique. Vidyasagar is a complete musician who had always done music for the film, he gives much more importance for the movie than trying to superceed the songs, he also mentioned this in an interview "students only ".

Awards[link]

National Film Awards:

• Best Music Director - 2005 - Swarabhishekam (Telugu)

Kerala State Film Awards:

• Best Music Director - 1996 - Azhakiya Ravanan
• Best Music Director - 1998 - Pranaya Varnangal
• Best Music Director - 2000 - Devadoothan

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards:

• Best Music Director - 2007 - Mozhi
• Best Music Director - 2001 - Dhill, Thavasi, Poovellam Un Vasam

Andhra Pradesh State Film Awards:

• Best Music Director - 2004 - Swarabhishekam

Other Awards:

• Asianet Film Award for Best Music Director - 2008 - Mulla
• Vanitha Nippon Award for Best Music Director - 2008 - Mulla
• Amrita TV Award for Best Music Director - 2009 - Neelathaamara
• Vanitha Nippon Award for Best Music Director - 2009 - Neelathaamara
• Southern Film Fare Award for Best Music Director - 2009 - Neelathaamara

Upcoming projects (2012)[link]

• Nadodi Mannan - Malayalam film. Directed by Viji Thampy and scripted by Krishna Poojapura. Shooting started. 6 songs composed.
• Thappana - Malayalam film. Mammotty starrer Directed by Johny Antony and scripted by Sinduraj. Shooting Started in April and will be released for Onam 2012.
• Mumbai Dhosth - Malayalam film. Pritviraj starrer Directed by Fazal and scripted by Rafi-Mecartin. This long delayed project might start in May and release for Onam 2012.
• Vydooryam - Malayalam film with new-face Kailash in the lead. 'Film was canned due to Financial Trouble.'
• Talkies - Malayalam film. Directed by Shajoon Karylal and scripted by S. Sureshbabu. Mohan Lal in double role. 5 songs composed. 'Latest news: Film is postponed, another project that will be canned for years :('

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• New official website

Vidyasagar may refer to:

People

• Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the Bengali scholar (1820-1891)
• Acharya Vidyasagar, the prominent Digambar Jain Acharya (1946-)
• Vidyasagar (music director), the South Indian music director

Other

• Vidyasagar Setu, commonly known as the Second Hooghly Bridge, a bridge in West Bengal, India linking Howrah to Kolkata
• Vidyasagar University, in Midnapore, West Bengal, India

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.