Devanesan Chokkalingam, popularly known by his screen name Deva, born November 20th, 1950, in Mylapore, Chennai, is an Indian Film Composer, Singer, Music Director and Producer who works predominantly in the Tamil Film Industry, besides having composed for Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. He is widely regarded as the pioneering figure who brought Tamil Gaana music, a folk genre rooted in the working-class neighbourhoods of Chennai, into mainstream Tamil cinema, and rose to be popularly hailed as the "King of Gaana." Over a career spanning close to four decades since his debut in 1989, he has composed music and background scores for more than 400 films across South Indian languages.