Siva Shakthi Datta

Some Lesser Known Facts About Siva Shakthi Datta

• Koduri Siva Shakthi Datta was born in a rich family. His father, Koduri Vijaya Apparao, was a landlord, contractor, and transport company owner. Apparao owned 12 buses and had an interest in the arts.

• He didn’t have much interest in studies and dropped out during intermediate studies at C. R. Reddy College in Eluru. He ran away from home and joined Sthe ir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai.

• He completed a diploma in painting and returned to Kovvur. He started using the name ‘Kamalesh’ for his paintings. Later, he changed his name to Siva Shakthi Datta.

• He also learned music and could play the guitar, sitar, and harmonium

• Datta and his younger brother V. Vijayendra Prasad moved to Madras to enter the film industry. Datta assisted a few directors and began a film titled Pillanagrovi, which stopped midway due to a lack of funds.

• Vijayendra Prasad met director K. Raghavendra Rao through Samatha Arts’ Mukherjee. Raghavendra Rao gave small assignments to Datta and Prasad.

• Their first major break came with the film Janaki Ramudu (1988), which was successful. Datta later wrote lyrics for films like Sye, Chatrapathi, Rajanna, Baahubali: The Beginning, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, RRR, and Hanu-Man.

• He was known for writing Sanskrit-influenced Telugu song lyrics.

• Datta died on 7 July 2025 at the age of 92. He passed away at his home in Hyderabad due to illness related to old age.

• He often did meditation. Once, he had a vision of a flame between his eyebrows during meditation, surrounded by a black circle. Rays from his forehead merged into it.

• He believed this vision resembled a black hole, and soon after saw a similar image in a newspaper with an Einstein quote.

• He noticed telepathic experiences, such as thinking about someone and they appearing shortly after, including a person from Bangalore.

• He claims to be able to sense visitors before they arrive, attributing this to awakened spiritual energy during meditation.

• He regularly attended full moon (Pournami) group meditations, even when ill, and even initiated a film distributor named Nagalingam by explaining the method, who then started practising and reported inner peace and happiness.

• He once said in an interview that he felt partially satisfied with life and that his ultimate goal was to make a film.