Chennai: Pallavi Prakash, a resident of Kodambakkam, grew up listening to music. Today, the disciple of the legendary R D Burman has made a name for himself in the world of symphony. It all began when he declined a corporate job offer and started his career at a gramophone recording company.
“To enhance my skills, I started collecting audio records of famous regional language artistes. Today, I have a good collection. I have in Hindi Naushads Mela, Dillagi and Shankar Jaikishans Barsaat and Basant Bahar. These are classics worth preserving. My love for record collection inspired me to become a composer,” says Pallavi Prakash. So, he left to Mumbai to learn composing and recording under the guidance of R D Burman. ”I was fortunate to train under him,” he adds.
After returning to Chennai, Pallavi Prakash released his first album, Deiva Maalai with P Susheela. It opened to positive reviews and earned him another opportunity to compose, Om Sakthi Om Sakthi with L R Eswari. This became a huge hit and sold several cassettes in a short span of time.
“The greatest moment in my career was composing songs for two legends, TM Soundararajan and P Susheela. TMS always praised my work. I composed many devotional albums for him. Dhundu Mallige in Kannada was a melodious album with lyrics penned by K S Narasimhaswamy,” states Pallavi who has worked with several famous music directors and composed albums sung by SPB , S Janaki, Parapalli Ranganath, among others. He also points out how new technology made cassettes lose their sheen.
“The flourishing cassette industry came to a standstill due to the advent of MP3 players and music apps. Today, there are hardly any music shops. CDs arent sold as people download songs for free,” he rues. Pallavi Prakash can be reached at 97907 51371.
(The article was written by Sweath Jain)