The shrill sound of the horn; shouting vendors; and shoppers strolling along — this is the scene at the famous wholesale market on Avenue Road, Chickpet. But, amid the cacophony comes a soothing ‘rangageetham’ by legendary theatre artist and vocalist Mysore Korrur Appa, from the second floor of a dilapidated structure.
A flight up dingy stairs leads to a shop where an elderly man plays music from an iconic gramophone. One of the early mediums that brought music to the people, the gramophone gradually faded out with the advent of technology.
But for D.S. Sreenivasa Murthy, the gramophone is family. “It is part of my life and I can’t imagine a day not having to deal with the wonder of this musical player,” says the 75-year-old owner of Seethaphone Company that makes gramophones even to this day.
Set up in 1924 by Mr. Murthy’s father, Seetharama Setty, in the same building on Avenue Road, the shop began selling Odeon and Columbia gramophones that competed with the HMV brand back then. “In the 1930s, many gramophone shops started coming up in Bengaluru, and my father decided to set up his own brand. He imported double spring motors and hand-winding equipment from the U.K. and Switzerland and purchased the rest of the parts from Bombay, to assemble the instrument. Thus originated the Seethaphone brand of gramophones,” recalls Mr. Murthy, whose remembers that the first instrument cost Rs. 37.
Setty had a flourishing business until his demise in 1963, and Mr. Murthy took over the reins. He even claims that Nobel laureate Sir. C.V. Raman once visited the shop in the early 60s looking for a gramophone’s wooden trumpet horn, and penned remarks in the visitors’ book, which he still cherishes. The introduction of new technology meant making changes in the business.
“We began to sell other sound equipment like speakers, but I went on producing the gramophone even though it wasn’t profitable,” says Mr. Murthy, who was loath to abandon what his father started. Finally, in 1995, he was forced to wind up the full-fledged production of the gramophone and began dealing with brass idols. But to this day, he replicates the iconic trumpet horn and portable gramophone models, and sources music records for enthusiasts and vintage aficionados. “After all, it is my family business and I will run it till my last breath,” adds Bengaluru’s gramophone man whose company just turned 91.
Sreenivasa Murthy claims that Nobel Laureate Sir. C.V. Raman once visited the shop in the early 60s looking for a gramophone’s wooden trumpet horn
