Venkatesh's father Pazhani was an accomplished mandolin player. Earlier in his life, he played guitar, banjo and mandolin, and was an assistant musical director to Shyam and Raveendran during his early days. He was introduced into the Malayalam film industry by
Dennis Joseph, with his first break coming in the film
Rajavinte Makan, directed by
Thampi Kannanthanam. The film and the songs in it were big hits, and Venkatesh subsequently became a regular collaborator of Thampi's, resulting in a series of hit musical albums during the 1990s. His most well-known film scores include
Indrajaalam,
Kilukkam,
Minnaram,
Spadikam,
Dhruvam,
Kauravar,
Johnnie Walker,
Kizhakkan Pathrose, and
Hitler. He also handled the orchestration for many other music directors. He composed background scores for films for which songs were composed by other composers, such as
Devasuram. He has also scored for some Bollywood and Bengali films. In 1993, he won the
Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director for his work in
Paithrukam and
Janam,
Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for his work in
Paithrukam. In 1999, he notably recorded nine songs in a single day for the unreleased Tamil film
Ithu Mudivithillai starring
Babu Ganesh and
Vichithra. Venkatesh died from cardiac arrest on 3 February 2026, at the age of 70. ==Discography==