His siblings are the late Balagopalan (who died at a young age, and on whose remembrance he wrote the song "Olathumbathirunnu"[3] from the movie Pappayude Swantham Appoos), Susheela Devi (singer), Vijayakumar, Dr. Chandra, Shyama, Darshan Raman (music director) and Jayalekshmi.

[4] Bichu Thirumala debuted with the Malayalam Movie Bhaja Govindam in 1972, which was directed by CRK Nair and with Jaya Vijaya as the music composer .After his modest beginning, Thirumala went on to become one of the most successful Malayalam lyricists and wrote songs for such notable music directors as Shyam, A. T. Ummer, Raveendran, G. Devarajan, and Ilaiyaraaja.

Bichu Thirumala penned the lines for AR Rahman's one and only Malayalam music for film, Yodha and the TV commercial jingle "Manam Pole" Mangalyam[5] for REMANIKA.

Bichu Thirumala, whose career stalled after a massive accident at his home in 1994, was admitted to S. K. hospital in Thiruvananthapuram with breathing problems and had suffered a heart attack as well.

[11] He was survived by his wife Prasanna (retired finance officer, KWA) and son Suman Bichu (music director).