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It’s well-known that many of Kollywood star director Mani Ratnam’s iconic films featured songs written by the legendary lyricist Veturi Sundaramurthy. The combination of Veturi’s poetic brilliance and A.R. Rahman’s mesmerizing music transported audiences to another world, creating timeless classics. Such magical collaborations are rare and hard to recreate, happening only in certain unique partnerships.

After Veturi, Mani Ratnam collaborated extensively with another legendary Telugu lyricist — Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry. Several remarkable films emerged from their association as well. Recently, Mani Ratnam fondly recalled his special bond with Sirivennela.

“Sirivennela garu would write extraordinary songs in a very short span of time. We used to jokingly say that we would ‘kidnap’ him to Chennai and keep him in a house where he had no world except for music. After Veturi garu, Sirivennela became my go-to lyricist for many of my films,” Mani Ratnam shared emotionally.

He went on to explain that Sirivennela not only wrote lyrics but deeply understood the characters and their emotions. “I would narrate the entire story to him, and he would craft the songs to seamlessly blend into the narrative. For him, songwriting was a passionate art.”

Speaking about Ponniyin Selvan, Mani Ratnam revealed, “I had requested Sirivennela to write the lyrics for Ponniyin Selvan. Since it’s a period film, he promised to study the language and style of that era before writing. Once the tunes were ready, I contacted him again. He asked for a few weeks’ time to work on it. Unfortunately, destiny had other plans, and we lost him before he could start.”