Honouring the legendary musicians

CHENNAI: It was a star-studded event as doyens from the Telugu film industry gathered in the city to felicitate Raj-Koti, legendary music directors, with ‘Sangeetha Vibhushana’ at a function organised by Sri Kala Sudha Telugu Association on Sunday. The duo has composed hits such as Guva gorinkatho, Intelo ilaalu vanti priya illaru, Priya raagale and many more. After making tunes for more than 400 films in ’80s and ’90s, the duo split and started composing independently. On this occasion, five other eminent musicians — Drums Sivamani, Mani Sharma, Harris Jeyraj, Vandhematharam Srinivas and Thaman were also honoured with ‘Sangeetha Ratna’ for their achievements in the field of music. Presenting the awards, veteran singer SP Balasubramanian commended the association for identifying talent and honouring the personalities in the film industry. He also requested that the music directors duo, Raj-Koti, should once again come together and compose tunes for films with live orchestration.Producer Katragada Prasad, who has worked with the duo for more than 21 films, presided over the function. Bethireddy Srinivas, founder of Sri Kala Sudha Telugu Association, addressed the gathering. Earlier, the programme saw a splendid musical performance by Raj-Koti’s light music troupe conducted by Murali. The other guests who graced the occasion were playback singers Suchitra, Ranjith, Rahul Nambiar and HemaChandra Veda.