Composer Deva, who scored Rajinikanth's Annamalai and Baasha, passes away

Music director Deva, the composer behind the songs of Rajinikanth's Annamalai and Baasha, died on Saturday. He was 75, reports say.

Fans knew him as Thenisai Thendral. His biggest mark on Tamil film music was gaana, the street song form he brought to the big screen. He did more than compose those numbers, too, and sang a number of songs himself.

Annamalai and Baasha remain two of the biggest hits of Rajinikanth's career, and Deva scored both. That work in the nineties tied his name closely to the superstar's films.

Only a couple of weeks before his death, Deva explained at the success meet of the Tamil film Meesaya Murukku 2 why he turned to gaana. He said he came in as the 28th music director at a time when Ilaiyaraaja ruled the industry, and none of the 27 who debuted before him had lasted. With Ilaiyaraaja on one side and A R Rahman on the other, he said, every tune he wrote ended up sounding like one of theirs. Gaana gave him an identity of his own.