Musician Raj Of Popular Telugu Music Duo Raj-Koti Dies! Tollywood Mourns His Sudden Death As Tributes Pour In

Music director Raj, who predominantly worked with composer Koti, as 'Raj-Koti,' died on Sunday, March 21 in Hyderabad. The Telugu film fraternity expressed deep shock at the sudden demise of Raj. Condolences have been pouring in for the veteran.

Friends-turned-musicians Raj and Koti have worked on several blockbuster films which have sensational records exclusively for their music and albums.

Raj Of Raj-Koti Dead

According to the available information, Raj breathed his last during the afternoon hours on May 21, in Hyderabad. He reportedly died due to prolonged illness.

Raj-Koti's Sensational Collaboration

The duo worked on the background score and tunes for films like Hello Brother, Muta Mestri, Bangaru Bullodu, Govinda Govinda, Lankeswarudu, Mechanic Alludu, Pokiri Raja, and other such films which count to 180.

The duo recorded about 3000 songs and among them, 2500 songs were sung by legendary late SP Balasubrahmanyam and KS Chithra.

Raj's Early Life & Background

Raj, born Thotakura Somaraju to TV Raju, who is a popular Telugu film music composer as Saluri Rajeswara Rao, who also was an ace musician of the TFI. Since childhood, Koti and Raj were also friends and they first collaborated to make music for films and private albums in the year 1982. The duo won Nandi Award for Best Music for Hello Brother in 1994. They worked together as musicians for over a decade successfully.

Raj-Koti Rift

While the duo were working day in and day-out for their projects at the peak of their career, Raj suddenly wanted to quit working together for some reason. Since then, Koti continued to rule the industry with his work for the decades to come while Raj remained behind professionally.

Also, in one of the recent interviews, Koti elaborated on their tiff saying that Raj was uncomfortable with producers and directors coming to Koti more frequently while they sidelined Raj, which angered the latter. However, the duo reconciled in 2012, but they didn't work together later on.