Music programming and arranging Harikrishna started out working as an assistant to many leading music directors in 1990's including
Hamsalekha,
V. Ravichandran,
Sadhu Kokila,
Gurukiran among others. He has worked as a programmer, an arranger and as a keyboard player for many music directors. He has worked for feature films, short films, daily soaps, ad jingles and private musical albums.
Music direction In 2006, Harikrishna was first signed up to compose music for actor
Darshan's first home production
Jothe Jotheyali. Until this time, Harikrishna was a struggling musician under the protege of actor - director
V. Ravichandran. Despite the industry's negative feedback for his move, Darshan went on to sign him as the music director. The film, starring
Prem and
Ramya in the lead and Darshan in a guest role, was directed by
Dinakar Thoogudeepa and had a successful run for about 25 weeks. The film's soundtrack was hugely popular upon release and this immediately silenced the critics. This was immediately followed by the actor's second home production
Navagraha. Since then, Harikrishna has been the official composer for most of the Darshan starrer films and productions. Some of the successful collaborations with Darshan include
Bhoopathi (2007),
Gaja (2008),
Porki (2010),
Prince (2011),
Saarathi (2011) and
Chingari (2012) to name a few. His first collaboration with director - lyricist
Yogaraj Bhat for the film
Gaalipata (2008) starring
Ganesh fetched him his maiden
Filmfare award for his successful soundtrack. Another film
Payana in the same year saw him belting out soft romantic melodies which was appreciated. The year 2009 proved to be more successful for him with back to back successful soundtracks for the films such as
Ambari,
Junglee,
Raam,
Maleyali Jotheyali and
Raj, The Showman. While in the former film, he debuted as a playback singer, the latter film fetched him his second Filmfare award for best music direction. In 2010, Harikrishna composed for 8 feature films and most of them were received very well upon release. Most noteworthy being
Jackie which fetched him his third and hat trick Filmfare award and
Super directed and enacted by
Upendra. The year 2011 saw him composing for over 14 films with many of them turning to be blockbusters and musically well appreciated.
Prince,
Hudugaru,
Vishnuvardhana,
Saarathi,
Paramathma and
Jogayya turned out to be biggest musical blockbusters cementing the top status for him. The success was followed in 2012 with
Chingari,
Anna Bond,
Katariveera Surasundarangi,
Addhuri,
Jaanu,
Drama Yaare Koogadali and
Prem Adda receiving enormous positive response both musically and at the box-office. He was also awarded for his singing in
Anna Bond by the
SIIMA. His fourth Filmfare award was for his second collaboration with Yogaraj Bhat,
Drama.
Addhuri won him
Udaya awards for his music direction. The successful journey continued further in 2013 with many chartbuster soundtracks for the films such as
Topiwala,
Bachchan,
Bulbul,
Kaddipudi,
Sakkare and
Shravani Subramanya. In 2014, his first musical release
Gajakesari evoked mixed response while his scores for films such as
Fair & Lovely and
Ambareesha was expected to be successful.
Film production In 2012, Harikrishna announced his intention in producing films and he started it with the film
Jai Bajarangabali starring
Ajay Rao and
Sindhu Lokanath. ==Personal life==