Yanamandra Venkata Subrahmanya Sharma (born 11 July 1964), known professionally as Mani Sharma, is an Indian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

known primarily for his work in the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

film industries; he has also worked on

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

films.

Early life

Mani Sharma was born Yanamandra Venkata Subrahmanya Sharma on 11 July 1964 in

Machilipatnam Machilipatnam (), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar, is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and the administrative headquarters of Krishna district. It is also the Tehsil, mandal he ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, and grew up in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. His father was a violinist who played with composer and music producer Saluru Rajeswara Rao.

Career

Sharma began his career programming under S. Rajeswara Rao and other composers including

Ramesh Naidu Pasupuleti Ramesh Naidu (1933–1988) was an Indian music composer, multi instrumentalist, and singer, known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He garnered the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the film Megha Sandesam ...

and

M. M. Keeravani Koduri Marakathamani Keeravani (born 4 July 1961; credited as M. M. Keeravani) is an Indian film composer, playback singer, and lyricist, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema along with other languages including Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Ma ...

. Film director

Ram Gopal Varma Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Bollywood, Hindi, Kannada cinema, Kannada language ...

had him compose the background music for '' Raathri'' and ''

Antham ''Antham'' () is a 1992 Indian neo-noir crime film written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma, filmed simultaneously in both Telugu and Hindi languages. The film starred Nagarjuna, Urmila Matondkar, Salim Ghouse, and Danny Denzongpa. The soundtrack ...

'' (both 1992), plus a song for ''Antham''. As music director, he has worked on several films with producer

Ashwini Dutt Vyjayanthi Movies is an Indian Production company, film production company established in 1974 by C. Aswani Dutt. It is one of the biggest film production houses in Telugu cinema. Vyjayanthi Movies is especially known for its big-budget product ...

, starting with ''Super Heroes''. he has been music director on more than 200 films, for the most part Telugu but also including 25 Tamil productions and several in Kannada. His first hit was ''

Preminchukundam Raa ''Preminchukundam Raa'' ( Come, let's love) is a 1997 Indian Telugu-language romantic action film directed by Jayanth C. Paranjee and produced by D. Suresh Babu under Suresh Productions. The film stars Venkatesh and Anjala Zaveri with music com ...

'' (1997); ''

Choodalani Vundi ''Choodalani Vundi'' () is a 1998 Indian Telugu-language action drama film written and directed by Gunasekhar, and produced by C. Aswani Dutt under Vyjayanthi Movies. This film stars Chiranjeevi, Soundarya, Anjala Zaveri and Prakash Raj. The fi ...

'' and ''

Samarasimha Reddy ''Samarasimha Reddy'' is a 1999 Indian Telugu-language action drama film, produced by Chengala Venkat Rao under Satyanarayanamma Productions banner and directed by B. Gopal. It stars Nandamuri Balakrishna in the titular role alongside Anjala ...

'' in particular have been highly successful. He has also collaborated on albums with many actors, including

Chiranjeevi Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, film producer and former politician, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Chiranjeevi starred in over 150 feature films in Telugu language, Telugu, as ...

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

and

Ram Charan Konidela Ram Charan Teja (born 27 March 1985) is an Indian actor, producer, and entrepreneur who works predominantly in Telugu films. One of the highest-paid Telugu film actors, he is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards and two Nandi Award ...

. His works are noted for integrating

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

with Western classical instrumentation. He is sometimes known as ''Melody Brahma'' and ''Swara Bramha''. Composers including

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. Th ...

Devi Sri Prasad Devi Sri Prasad (; born 2 August 1979) is an Indian film composer, lyricist, singer-songwriter and performer. Popularly known by his initials DSP, he is best known for his work in Telugu-language films, and has also worked in a few Tamil films ...

and

Harris Jayaraj Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Telugu and two films in Hindi. He has been honoured with K ...

worked under him in their early days.

Awards

He has received two state

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...

, three

Filmfare Awards South Filmfare Awards South is the South Indian segment of the annual Filmfare Awards, presented by the Filmfare magazine of The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Indian film industry encompassing ...

, two

CineMAA Awards The CineMAA Awards are presented annually by the Maa TV Group to honour artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Telugu Cinema. The awards were introduced in 2004. The CineMAA Awards are voted for by both the public and a commit ...

and three

Mirchi Music Awards South Mirchi Music Awards South is the South Indian segment of the annual Mirchi Music Awards, presented by Radio Mirchi to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the South Indian music industry. The awards are separately giv ...

for Best Music Direction.

Discography

Telugu

Tamil

Kannada

Hindi

Background score only

Television

* 2007 ''Suriya''

Other works

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Mani Living people Telugu people Filmfare Awards South winners Musicians from Andhra Pradesh Kannada film score composers Tamil film score composers Telugu film score composers Musicians from Chennai 20th-century Indian composers 21st-century Indian composers Indian male musicians Indian male composers Indian film score composers People from Andhra Pradesh People from Krishna district 1964 births