C. R. Subburaman Biography 
C. R. Subburaman was a famous South Indian film music composer and producer. He was popularly known as C. S. Ram. In this short life span of 10 years in cinema, he made music to many memorable movies like Devadas, Ratnamala, Chenchu Lakshmi, Balaraju and Laila Majnu. He died at a young age of just 41, with many of his contributions left unfinished. Music director Shankar of Shankar Ganesh duo is his younger brother.
He was born in the year 1911. Initially he learned music from a Nadhaswaram player in Kumbakonam and also learnt harmonium at a younger age. He was verse in this music instrument at the age of 14. Subburaman joined the HMV as Harmonist at the age of 16. He got the job under the recommendation of G. Ramanathan’s brother Sundara Bagavathar. He resided at Mylapur during this time. He learnt piano from a piano teacher in Triplicane. He was accompanied by his father during this time. Very soon, he was hired as an assistant music director of HMV music company.
For the Telugu film Chenchu Lakshmi (1943), R. Chinnaiah was the music director and when he fell ill, he couldn’t complete the task. S. Rajeswara Rao took the responsibility to complete the rest two songs and it too, didn’t happen. Thus Subburaman got the opportunity to finish the project. He was assisted by Samudrala Raghavacharya and he boldly made certain changes by introducing Latin American music alongside Carnatic music. The idea was clicked and he received appreciation as a music director. It was the starting point of his music career. He has worked under the banner of different production companies and within the short time of 10 years, he gave numerous hits to film industry.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 16, 2014
