Music director S P Venkatesh passes away @70

CHENNAI: Music director S P Venkatesh credited as Sangeetharajn passed away on Tuesday. He was 70. He breathed his last at his home in Chennai following cardiac arrest.

Venkatesh was born on March 5 in 1955 in Tamil Nadu. He started playing guitar in films with music director Vijay Bhaskar in 1971. Venkatesh, who established himself as an assistant music director in Kannada cinema in 1975, became an independent music director in 1981 with the Telugu film 'Premayudha'. He became active in Malayalam music in 1983. Venkatesh shone in Malayalam in the 90s.

Venkatesh entered the Malayalam film industry as a music director in 1985 through the film Janakeeya Kodathi in 1985. People started noticing his name with his film Rajavinte Makan. At that time, along with the film, the background music and songs of the film garnered attention.

He gave many hit songs in films like Vazhiyora Kazhchakal, Bhoomiyile Rajakkanmar, Indrajalam, Nadodi, Manthrikam, Thudarkatha, Douthyam, Dhruvam, Mahayanam, Kauravar, Johnny Walker, Kilukkam, Minnaram, Sphadikam etc. He has also worked in Tamil, Kannada, Bengali and Hindi films. In 1993, he received the Kerala State Film Award for music direction in the films Paithrukam and Janam.