S S Thaman was born as Ghantasala Sai Srinivas in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, into a Telugu-speaking Brahmin family of musicians from Pottepalem, Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh. He is the grandson of director Ghantasala Balaramayya. His father Ghantasala Siva Kumar was a drummer, who worked for seven hundred films, under the composer, K. Chakravarthy. His mother, Ghantasala Savitri is a playback singer and his aunt is singer. B. Vasantha. Sai Srinivas adopted the stage name Thaman and suffixed it with an S, the initial of his father's name Sivakumar.
S S Thaman studied at Don Bosco School in Chennai. He joined a music team consisting of S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and G. Anand as a rhythm pads player when he was nine years old, and discontinued studies when he lost his father at the age of 13. He was compelled to make his hobby into a profession to overcome the crisis in his family. He then joined the Raj-Koti team and worked for three years on sixty films and collaborated M. M. Keeravani, working with him for three years to complete thirty films.
S S Thaman considered Mani Sharma to be his guru and spent eight years under his tutelage while working on 94 films with him. On the whole he put in fourteen years of rhythm and keyboard programming with the veterans before branching out on his own.
S S Thaman made his debut as a composer in through the Telugu feature film Malli Malli (2009), although the soundtrack album was released in 2008. Jeevi of Idlebrain credited Thaman's work in the film is credited as "good". The same year his second soundtrack, of the film Sindhanai Sei, marked his debut in the Tamil cinema. He has also made his playback singing debut by recording "Uchimeedhu" song from the soundtrack.
Although S S Thaman got his major success with the album of the film Kick (2009), critics gave mixed reviews citing it as "mediocre". In the same year, he has four more soundtrack album releases-three in Telugu and one in Tamil. Composition of "Mahalakshmi" and "Dhakku Dhakku" songs from the film Sankham were praised. In 2010, he has composed score and soundtrack album for nine films, with majority of them being Tamil. Brindavanam was the most successful composition of all. Released on 12 September 2010, the album received positive reviews.
In May 2017, S S Thaman made his Hindi debut when he was one of the six composers who featured in the soundtrack album of Rohit Shetty's Golmaal Again, a comedy franchise in Hindi cinema. In 2018, he composed a theme song for Rohit Shetty's successful venture Simmba.
Thaman shares his journey only on “Prema The Journalist” KZfaq channel.
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00:00 - Intro
00:47 - Detachment through cricket
02:52 - Influence of director Trivikram
07:03 - Father's blessing in disguise
10:32 - Freedom from music directors
12:32 - Pressure as a music director
14:21 - Credit for DJ Tillu music
15:58 - Learnings from each music director
18:19 - Handling multiple compositions parallelly
21:05 - Reflecting on own compositions
22:16 - Valuing feedback from crew
24:17 - Unexpected chartbusters
26:10 - Dedication towards Akhanda
28:36 - Favourite compositions
31:28 - Music production budgets
32:56 - Kalavathy song controversy
36:27 - Bond with Mahesh Babu
38:48 - Composing as a fan
40:28 - Godfather composition experience
42:10 - Mani Sharma's appreciation
42:52 - Bheemla Nayak composition experience
45:34 - Introducing new talent
50:09 - Sarkaaru Vari Paata composition experience
53:56 - Finalising singers for tracks
56:50 - Social Media presence post pandemic
1:00:02 - Indian Idol judge role
1:02:59 - Dressing style
1:04:20 - RAPID FIRE
1:04:26 - Favourite contemporary music directors
1:06:18 - Mapping movie titles to music directors
Edited by: Gopi Kanth Nuthi
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PREMA MALINI is a two time Erstwhile AndhraPradesh State Nandi award, and one time National award winning TV Journalist, with deep expertise in creating socially relevant television documentaries, Celebrity Interviews and news programming.