Bangalore: Popular Kannada music director now proposes to add another feather to his cap by directing a movie in the combo of former Hindi legendary directors Shantharam and Gurudutt.

"I have always been wonder struck by Shantharam's narration of movies with music and Gurudutt's effective style of movie making. I now desire to direct a movie with music as the core. This would be my biggest contribution to an industry that has given me so much in life," Hamsalekha said in a recent radio interview.

For a man who took his masters degree programme – from Mysore University – pretty late in life, he said, "I tried answering the MA (Master of Arts) question paper in a very poetic style. It must be accredited as a role model answer paper. And the whole experience of getting back to college at this age to be one among the teens to learn Kumaravyasa (a revered Kannada poet) is unforgettable!"

Quizzed about the influence of the success of his debut movie 'Prema Loka' on his next ventures, he played a straight bat and said, "The success, coupled with immense responsibility, was tremendous. I was expected to deliver the best like how Sachin is expected to hit a century when he gets to his bat."

Success of the music in 'Prema Loka' not achieved overnight attained. "The tryst with my drama company 'Viveka Ranga' took me to the masses. My music for stage performances had its own following in many parts of Karnataka. The same fans later voted me as a film music composer," he said.

It was, however, not his personal choice to turn into a music composer. "I was in the dock when my drama company fell prey to a fire mishap in Nanjangud. My friends suggested me to take to film music, which I always hated. It was not my cup of tea to praise any Tom-Dick-Harry in the name of entertainment," he said.

"However, my well wishers insisted that I had to make a compromise to bring my talent out. I was introduced to V Ravichandran (the man behind 'Prema Loka'). Though I entered films as a writer, I took to music composing after envisaging a huge potential there," he stated.

"The Kannada film music industry was at transition stage when I entered the scene. With the veteran music directors growing old, the industry was looking for something fresh and that posed a challenge to me. To meet the challenge, I built a strong troupe 'Sam Sam' of 450 performers. Now these disciples are creating a niche for themselves," he said.

On his new venture 'Nanjundi', also his 250th movie, he said, "I have experimented with a live orchestra for all the nine songs in Nanjundi. I've taken lot of care to ensure that the lyrics give the music a rural touch. With all this, I expect the music in this film to become a land mark."

Narrating his own personal life, he explained how Gangaraju became Hamsalekha at the behest of his teach Neelakanthappa, who presenting him with a pen made by Swan. "Using that, I penned a drama when I was seventh standard. It was then I decided to keep a pen name for myself and translated 'Swan pen' to 'Hamsalekhani' in Kannada. Later it got shortened to Hamsalekha by my teacher," he explained.

Hamsalekha, however, regretted the fact that music directors, including himself, had failed in educating children through music. "It’s easy to make children see life through the eyes of music. Also, music helps children in learning new things, for it's easy to keep in memory what is learnt through music," he said while paying rich tributes to his gurus.