Rajan-Nagendra

Rajan and Nagendra (Kannada: Kannada ರಾಜನ್ – ನಾಗೇಂದ್ರ ) were musicians who were prominent composers of film music in Kannada cinema during the late 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Rajan, along with his brother Nagendra, created a niche for themselves for nearly four decades. The duo scored music for about 375 films, over 200 of them in Kannada and the remaining in other languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu, Hindi and Sinhala. They composed innumerable hits, hundreds of melodious tunes in their career spanning four decades. They also hold the record for the longest active musical pair in the industry.

Rajan (b. 1933) and Nagendrappa (b. 1935), born in Shivarampet of Mysore in a middle-class musical family. Their father Rajappa was a harmonium and flute player who played background music for silent movies.

Within a short time, each of them attained proficiency in playing a different instrument – Rajan in violin and Nagendra in Jal tarang. Rajan used to listen to musical performances of eminent musicians at Choudayya Ramamandira in Mysore and hence got the opportunity to listen to music performances by Hindusthani, Karnatik, and western music in the Mysore palace. Later on Rajan came to Bangalore for his further educational studies.

In Bangalore Rajan studied in S.L.N. School in the K.R. Market area, Later in central high school. Rajan learnt the violin and appeared for the violin state level competition and had the distinction of passing in first rank.

Both Rajan and Nagendra participated in public performances through Jaya Maruthi Orchestra. In the meanwhile, Rajan got an offer to go to Madras. He took his brother along with him and they got an opportunity of learning the music trade under the aegis of H. R. Padmanabha Shastri who was known for producing talkie movies at that time. It gave them a lot of exposure to the movie industry.

In 1951, Nagendra returned to Mysore and completed his matriculation. Then he joined P. Kalinga Rao who at that time was a famous radio artiste. Within no time, Nagendra got an opportunity of singing for the movie 'Srinivasa Kalyana' along with Hindustani singer Ameer Bai

Finally, Rajan–Nagendra became independent music directors when they scored music for the film Sowbhagya Lakshmi in 1952. After this, they never looked back for more than four decades. This movie opened their doors of success. After 'Sowbhagya Lakshmi' came Vittalacharya's 'Chanchalakumari', 'Rajalakshmi' and 'Mutthaide Bhagya' in a series to open the doors for these would-be melody kings.

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