Most Indian films are musicals, and their music directors are among the best known musicians in India. Music directors are typically both composers and arrangers. Some are famed playback singers as well. A survey has been done to find out the top 10 music directors in Tollywood recently and here is the list of them.

1. Devi Sri Prasad

Devi Sri Prasad is a film composer and playback singer in Telugu, Tamil films. His soundtracks have been dubbed or remade in several other languages as well. He is making his debut in Malayalam cinema with the forthcoming film Kandahar, which stars Mohanlal, Amitabh Bachchan and Surya Sivakumar in lead roles.

Early life and career He was born Vedurupaka and later moved to Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. His father was a school teacher and a writer. He completed his schooling at Sir M. Venkata Subba Rao Boys High School, T. Nagar, Chennai. He won several prizes in the cultural organized at inter-school level for both dance and singing competitions.

Though he was the No., 1 music director for a long time, he has received stiff competition from Thaman and others for a brief period. Year 2012 helped him regain his spot at the top with block busters like “Gabbar Singh”, “Julayi” and continued with “Mirchi” and still going strong. Devi Sri Prasad is known to be a big fan of Ilaiyaraaja. He has a younger brother named Sagar who is also a playback singer.

 2. Ilayaraja

Ilaiyaraaja (born Gnanadesikan) is an Indian film composer who works predominantly in the South Indian cinema since the late 1970s. Regarded as one of the finest music composers in India, Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor, singer, and asongwriter. He has composed more than 5000 songs and is the only composer in the history of cinema to provide film scores for more than 1000 films, particularly being acclaimed for his background scoring.

3. M.M.Keeravani

Koduri Keeravaani, better known as M. M. Keeravaani under the alias Maragatha Mani (Tamil cinema) and M. M. Kreem (Bollywood), is an Indian film music composer and playback singer, who works in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindicinema. In 1997, he has garnered the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the movie Annamayya. He has won 5Filmfare Awards, eight Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Awards and a Tamil Nadu State Film Award. Annamayya, Allari Priyudu, Magadheera, Pelli Sandadi, Chhatrapati are the best movies.

4. Mani Sharma

Mani Sharma Yanamandra is an ace music director known for his works in Telugu and Tamil films. He is popularly known as “Melody Brahma” (God of Melody) for his contributions to music in Tollywood. Mani has scored music for more than 175 films in Telugu, Tamil and other South Indian Languages. He has received two Nandi Awards, three Filmfare Awards and three Music Mirchi Awards. Khaleja, Racha, Ek Niranjan, Okkadu are the best movies.

5. Anoop Rubens

Anup Rubens is an Indian music director known particularly for his work in Tollywood. He hails from Hyderabad. He composes songs for Telugu film industry. He gained initial fame through Ishq, and has since become established through Gunde Jaari Gallanthayinde and most recently, Manam.

It took a long while for this music director to establish himself in the industry. He is Teja’s find for the film “Jai” in 2004 and it took him 7 years to register a block buster hit. The year 2011 has been very good year for him as he delivered super hit music for block buster films like “Ishq” and “Poolarangadu” and “Lovely”.

6. S.V. Krishna Reddy

S. V. Krishna Reddy is an Indian film director, actor, producer, screenwriter and music director, predominant in Telugu Cinema. Known for directing comedy films, to his credit he adds thirty eight Telugu films and few Hindi films. He has garnered three Andhra pradesh state Nandi Awards and one Filmfare Best Director Award (Telugu). He ventured into Hollywood with the 2012 romantic comedy, Divorce Invitation, an American adaptation to his 1997 Telugu film, Aahvaanam produced by R. R. Venkat.

7. Thaman

Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman Siva Kumar, known as SST is an Indian film music composer, who predominantly works inTelugu cinema and Tamil. His Debut film as music director is the Ravi Teja starrer blockbuster Telugu film Kick, though he appeared in a role as an actor in the film Boys, he has since established himself as a music director in the South Indian film industries.

Thaman bursted into Stardom with “Kick” and bagged offers from the leading top heroes in Tollywood and thereafter delivered block busters like “Dookudu”, “Businessman”, “Brundvanam” and for some time he almost reached the No., 1 spot.

8. Mickey J Meyer

Mickey J Meyer was born in Hyderabad (India) in a quiet town named Jeera.He grew up in Secunderabad where he did his schooling and was introduced to music by his father who was an ardent music listener.Mickey started learning music at the very early age of seven. His music was slow,had no thumping beats,had the simplest chord progressions, was soothing to the ears, and yet was accepted by everyone in the cinema field which was dominated by peppy beats oriented music.

Micky debuted with “Happy Days” and later delivered music for block busters like “Kotha Bangaru Lokam” and “SVSC” and has received Nandi Awards too. Though he has westernization in his music, he takes care of melody and lyrics are properly heard in his music.

9. Sekhar Chandra

Sekhar Chandra mostly composes music for Ravi babu’s films and he shot into fame with “Nuvvila”, “Memu Vayasuku Vocham” and “3G Love”. Gnapakam, Nachavule, Manjeera, Anasuya, Amaravathi, Manasara, Nuvvilaa are his best movies.

10. M.M.Srilekha

M. M. Srilekha, (born Koduri Srilekha) is an Indian film playback singer and music composer, known for her works predominantly inTelugu cinema. She is the only female music director in Telugu film industry. Srilekha is the cousin of composer M. M. Keeravani. She started her career as a play back singer at the age of 12. She has composed for her first movie Taj Mahal and Dasari Narayana Rao’s Naannagaru. Apart from South Indian films, She has composed for bollywood films like Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain, Mere Sapnon Ki Raani, Aaghaaz etc.