Deva, the Composer Who Brought Gaana Into Tamil Cinema, Dies at 75

Two days before he died, Deva's music was playing in thousands of cinemas.

Every Rajinikanth film opens with the same thing: the letters S-U-P-E-R S-T-A-R slamming onto the screen to a brassy, unmistakable theme. Deva wrote that. It opened Jailer 2 on 15 October, the way it has opened Rajini films for three decades. On Saturday 17 October, the man who wrote it died in Chennai. He was 75.

Deva was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai on Saturday morning. Some reports say he died after a heart attack; the family hadn't put out a detailed statement when this piece was written. He is survived by his son, the composer Srikanth Deva. His brothers Sabesh and Murali, the duo Sabesh–Murali, also worked in film music; Sabesh died last year.

The gaana man

Born Devanesan Chokkalingam in Chennai on 20 November 1950, he started scoring films in the mid-1980s and broke through at the end of that decade. By the time he stopped counting, it was more than 400 films across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

The thing Tamil cinema owes him most is gaana. It's the street music of North Chennai, sung at funerals and gatherings in working-class neighbourhoods, in the city's own slangy Madras Tamil. Deva took that sound and its rhythm into mainstream film soundtracks, and into the mouths of leading men. "Thenisai Thendral", the title fans gave him, means something like "the breeze of sweet music". He was also, more informally, the godfather of gaana.

Listen to Baashha, or Annamalai, and you can hear what he did: big star music that still sounds like it came from a real street in a real city.

The films

• Annamalai (1992) and Baashha (1995), with Rajinikanth

• Aasai (1995), which won him a Tamil Nadu State Film Award

• Kadhal Kottai (1996)

• Tholi Prema (1998), the Pawan Kalyan romance and his best-known Telugu score

• Vaalee (1999) and Kushi (2000)

He also held the Kalaimamani honour from the Tamil Nadu government, and won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director more than once.

He never stopped

What's hardest about the news is how sudden it feels. Actor Khushboo Sundar wrote that he had been healthy just ten days earlier. He was still performing live, in India and abroad, this year. In 2014 he sang a gaana number for a young composer named Anirudh Ravichander, on Maan Karate. Twelve years later, Anirudh scored Jailer 2, which opens on Deva's title music.

That's the line of descent in one sentence. Tamil film music now sounds the way it does partly because one man in the late 1980s decided that the music of Chennai's streets belonged on the big screen.

This piece will be updated with details of the last rites and tributes as they are confirmed.

Frequently asked questions

When did music director Deva die?

On Saturday, 17 October 2026, in Chennai. He was 75.

What was the cause of Deva's death?

Some reports say he died after a heart attack. His family had not issued a detailed statement at the time of writing.

Did Deva compose the Rajinikanth title card music?

Yes. The 'Super Star Rajni' title card music that opens Rajinikanth's films is Deva's composition, and it still appears in his films, including Jailer 2.

What are Deva's most famous films?

Annamalai, Baashha, Aasai, Kadhal Kottai, Vaalee and Kushi, along with the Telugu hit Tholi Prema.