Biography
Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy (1919 – 2013) was an Indian musician and composer of Carnatic music, director of Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films. Known as Swami, he was instrumental in pioneering film scores based on Indian classical music.Dasinamurthy was born into a Tamil Brahmin family on December 9, 1919, in Haripad, Kerala, their father was a bank clerk in then British-occupied India.
He was the eldest of seven children in the family, his interest in music was nurtured by his mother, who taught him from childhood. At 10 he was taught Carnatic music and at 13 he gave his first public performance at the Ambalapusha Sri Krishna Temple. He continued his studies in Carnatic music and started composing his own songs.
In 1948 he moved with his parents to Chennai, got married and entered the film world. He made his debut in the film industry in 1950 In the 60s he performed around 500 Carnatic concerts in Kerala. He has also performed at international venues such as the Dubai Dala Festival in Dubai, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait. In 1971 he won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director. In 2003, she received the coveted 'Sangeetha Saraswathi' award. He has written songs for more than 125 films. He composed up to 1400 songs. He was the guru of many singers and music directors.
He died on August 2, 2013. That year, at the age of 93, he was still working, writing music for another film project.