T. G. Lingappa

Thiruchirappalli Govindarajulu Lingappa (22 August 1927 – 5 February 2000) was an Indian music director who worked predominantly in Kannada language films.

It is to be noted that Lingappa played instruments for Ashok Kumar (1941) and he was earning a salary of ₹30 monthly .

Not giving up, Lingappa proceeded to Salem to try his chance in Modern Theatres when music director T. A. Kalyanam invited him.

In 1945, Lingappa returned to Madras and worked under R. Sudarsanam in Pragathy Studios and he played instruments in the film Sri Valli (1945).

Lingappa went to Karakkudi to play musical instruments when AVM Productions made Nam Iruvar (1947).

The singing actors M. M. Dandapani Desikar, T. R. Mahalingam, K. R. Ramasamy, U. R. Jeevarathinam, N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Madhuram and J. P. Chandrababu also sang memorable songs under his compositions.

The success of the songs are due to T. R. Mahalingam and Lingappa both knew carnatic music, cooperated and discussed the tunes together.

B. R. Panthulu separated from T. R. Mahalingam and started Padmini Pictures for which banner Lingappa composed most number of films in Tamil.

The first film of B. R. Panthulu was Kalyanam Panniyum Brahmachari (1954), a Sivaji Ganesan starrer directed by P. Neelakantan.

V. N. Sundaram sang the comedy song Kaviyin Kanavil Vaazhum Oviyame in which he combines light music with carnatic tune.

Lingappa continued on composing for Sabaash Meena (1958), Engal Kudumbam Perisu (1958) and Kuzhandhaigal Kanda Kudiyarasu (1960).

In this movie by Lingappa there is a duet Thendrale Varaayo Inba Sugam Tharayo by T. M. Soundararajan and U. R. Jeevarathinam.

One is Kunguma Poove which J. P. Chandrababu learnt under Lingappa and sang for S. M. Subbaiah Naidu in Maragatham (1959).