Deva

Biography:

South Indian film composer and singer Devanesan Chokkalingam, better known as Deva, primarily composes and sings for Tamil films. In a career lasting roughly 36 years, he has written songs and supplied background music for Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam films. He has written the soundtrack for almost 400 movies.

M. C. Chokkalingam and M. C. Krishnaveni gave birth to Deva. Deva had a passion for music since he was a young boy. He collaborated with Chandra Bose to produce numerous musical programs. He began studying classical music with Dhanraj and has now finished a diploma in Western music at London’s Trinity College of Music. His brothers, who have formed the group Sabesh-Murali, and his son Srikanth Deva are both music directors. Actor Jai is his nephew.

Before entering the film industry, Deva spent some time working for the Doordarshan Podhigai channel, where he wrote music for the program Vayalum Vaazhvum. At that time, Deva’s brothers were instrumentalists in Illayaraja’s and other music directors’ musical ensembles. Manasukketha Maharasa, his debut movie, came out in 1989. Later, he received a call to assist with the film Vaigasi Poranthachu. Vaikaasi Poranthaachu’s name spread throughout the Tamil community after the film’s premiere.

He was known as “the breeze of sweet music” or “thenisai thendral” by the legendary music composer M. S. Viswanathan. He has written the music for more than 400 movies so far, including ones in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. He is renowned for writing music for religious movies. He received a lot of praise for the music he composed for the Rajinikanth-starring films Annamalai (1992) and Baashha (1995).