Ramesh Vinayakam

In 1986, Ramesh Vinayakam's first album Prathidhvani was released.[3] The album was a compilation of devotional songs on 10 deities, all sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam.[4] Three years later, director Moulee offered him a Telugu film, Paila Pacheesu and made him a music director.[3] He worked with Moulee on two more films, Manchi Roju (1991) and Aunty (1995) starring Shobana and Jayasudha, respectively.[2] Subsequently, he would again look for work and approach various producers and directors. Vinayakam recalls that "nothing happened" thereafter and calling it a "long and frustrating period".[2] In 2002, director Vasanth eventually signed him as one of the five composers for his next romantic musical Hey! Nee Romba Azhaga Irukke. Ramesh Vinayakam's contribution to the ensemble soundtrack was the song "Thottu Thottu" that was also sung by him.[2] The same year he composed for the film University that was his first full-fledged project in Tamil.[2] The Hindu in its review wrote that the soundtrack album was "very strong on melody" and "definitely worth a listen".[5] Although the film was a box office bomb, Vinayakam has said he was glad that University had happened, since it fetched him his next project Nala Damayanthi (2003),[2] his most notable film till date. Written and produced by Kamal Haasan, it featured Madhavan in the lead. For the film, he further made Haasan sing an English song in the country genre.[6] Vinayakam then composed the score and songs for Radha Mohan's maiden feature film Azhagiya Theeye and Jerry written by Crazy Mohan. He received positive critical response for his work in Azhagiya Theeye in particular.[7][8]

Aside from film, Vinayakam has primarily worked on devotional music. He composed his first devotional song at age 12.[9] Since, he has worked on a number of devotional albums, including Shambo Mahadeva, Krishna Janardhana and Sri Rama Dootam apart from Prathidhvani.[4][10] In 2011, he composed the theme song for "Nadha Vaibhavam", a grand musical event of Sri Sri Ravishankar's Art of Living.[11][12] Vinayakam has also composed many jingles and numerous title songs for television,[2] including all of Crazy Mohan's television series.[3]

His upcoming projects include the English remake of A Wednesday, titled A Common Man directed by Sri Lankan filmmaker Chandran Rutnam and starring Ben Kingsley,[13] as well as S. P. B. Charan's next production.[9]

Ramesh Vinayakam is a notable singer, too. While he has sung songs in all his Tamil films, he has also sung playback for other composers. Under Harris Jayaraj's direction, he had performed the song "Yaaridamum" from the film Thotti Jaya (2005). He has lent his voice for songs from the films Bhaiyaa, the dubbed Telugu version of the film Malaikottai, and the low budget flick Kadhal Valarthen, which had music by singer Srinivas. In 2010, he sang the number "Sada Siva" from the Telugu film Khaleja for composer Mani Sharma. Although the film did not fare well, the song became popular and Vinayakam along with N. C. Karunya, who co-sang the song, went on to win several accolades, including the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer – Telugu.[14] In 2012, he sang the song "Stop The Pattu" from Moondru Per Moondru Kaadhal for composer Yuvan Shankar Raja.[15]

Ramesh Vinayakam has been working for several years on a so-called "Gamaka box", a way to visually represent and notate the gamaka, which is a type of ornamentation in Indian classical music. Notation of gamakams is generally not found in the Indian music system and Vinayakam's attempt was seen as a possible breakthrough and revolution in carnatic music.[9][16]

Films

Television

• Simran Thirai (Jaya TV)
• Crazy-in Vidathu Sirippu (Jaya TV)
• Rojakoottam (Vijay TV)

• Prathidhvani (1986)
• Sambo Mahadeva (1990)
• Krishna Janardhana (1993)
• Aha Oho Ayyappa (1996)
• Vetrivel Sivasakthivel (2002)
• Moksha Mantra of Lord Shiva (2005)
• SriRama Dootam (2009)