From losing his father at the age of 11, dropping out of school to winning the national award: Interesting trivia about music composer Thaman S

Ace composer Thaman S has won his first national award for his music for the Allu Arjun and Pooja Hegde starrer 'Ala Vaikuntapurramuloo'. He got closer to the telly audiences with the music reality show 'Super Singer' while his OTT debut was successful with the recently concluded show Telugu Indian Idol. However, his road to success and glory wasn't a cakewalk. Here's a look at a few lesser-known facts about the award-winning musician.

Thaman's real name is Sai Thaman Ghantasala. However, his Instagram handle is named Thaman Sivakumar after his father Shivakumar, a noted musician. His aunts, wife, and others are playback singers, too.

Thaman's grandfather is Ghantasala Balaramaiah, a renowned film producer, who has introduced legendary actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao to the film industry. However, Thaman's father was rather interested in music and Thaman is carrying the torch forward.

Thaman lost his father Shivakumar when he was just 11 years old due to a massive cardiac arrest. This is apparently his last picture with him. Thaman feels he has just interested in his dad's music DNA. After his father's death, Thaman had to quit education while his mother bought him new equipment and supported his career in music.

Thaman was so into music that he discontinued studies after 6th standard. Even in school, he was so active in music and cultural programs. He was not a great student and he used to take punishments for being active in playing drums and extra-curricular activities alone. Geography was the only subject he was interested in.

Thaman has worked with legendary musicians like SP Balasubramanyam, Manisharma, Sivamani, Koti, and others while he was quite young. His mother used to accompany him for recordings and events. His first paid recording was Nandamuri Balakrishna's socio-fantasy drama 'Bhairavadweepam', a timeless classic directed by Singeetham Srinivas. He has reportedly worked with over 64 music directors for nearly 900 films as a rhythm programmer before making his debut as a music composer.

Thaman considers Sivamani and Manisharma as his mentors and fatherly figures. While he makes his first recording with Sivamani for every film of his, Thaman regards Manisharma as his Guru. He has worked for nearly 94 films with Manisharma apparently because the latter stood by him despite criticism and trash talking about him. Thaman invited Manisharma as the special guest for one of the recent episodes of Telugu Indian Idol as well.

Since he grew up in Chennai, Thaman picked up reading and writing Telugu very recently after working with Telugu filmmaker Trivikram during Aravinda Sametha. His dream was to work with Trivikram which fulfilled with Aravinda Sametha. Thaman went to work with Trivikram for Ala Vaikuntapurramuloo for which he has won a national award now.

The ace music composer has made his acting debut with the Tamil film Boys alongside Siddarth, Genelia and others. He worked for the Shankar directorial since the latter wanted a professional drummer for the film. Thaman even continued to work for films for a year and later came back to music. Interestingly, he is scoring music for Shankar and Ramcharan's upcoming film after nearly 20 years.

On the personal front, Thaman got married quite early at the age of 21 and he has a song who studying class X. His wife is also a playback singer. Thaman considers his mother and wife as his biggest critics.