MUMBAI: 91-year-old veteran music composer TK Ramamurthy passed away on 17 April in Chennai. The legend was suffering from a brief illness and was admitted to a private hospital, where he breathed his last.

As per reports, the veteran composer, also a violinist, breathed his last this morning at a hospital.

Born in 1992 at Tiruchirapalli to a musical family, had led him to become a talented violinist. His father, Krishnaswamy Iyer and grandfather, Malaikottai Govindasamy Iyer were well known violinists in Trichy. Ramamurthy performed stage shows along with his father as a child which got him work as a violinist for HMV. Following this, he got an opportunity to meet violinist and composer TG Lingappa and MS Viswanathan.

His major works are in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films and his major success came when he partnered with MS Viswanathan. Duo Viswanathan- Ramamurthy composed musical scores for over 700 films in the South Indian film industry during the 1950s and 1960s. The duo parted in 1965 and composed music for 19 films in 1966-1986.

In September 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate along with Viswanathan by the Sathyabama Deemed University.

Ramamurthy's body has been kept at his residence in Royapettah, for people to pay their respects. The body will be cremated Thursday.