C. Ramchandra was a celebrated music director of the Indian film industry. Although he was born as Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar, he was popular as C. Ramchandra and also used other names such as Shyamoo, Ram Chitalkar and Annasaheb. Apart from working as a music director, he also used to sing and act for Marathi films under the name R. N. Chitalkar. He had also voiced some of the memorable and soulful duets with Lata Mangeshkar like "Shola Jo bhadke" from Albela and "Kitna Haseen Hai Mausam" from Azad.

Early Life of C. Ramchandra
C. Ramchandra was born on 12th January 1918 in a small town called Puntamba in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. He received his training in music from Vinayakbua Patwardhan at Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. He was also trained under Shankarrao Sapre of Nagpur.

Career of C. Ramchandra
C. Ramchandra stepped into the film industry with Y. V. Rao"s movie, Naganand in which he played the lead role. He also portrayed minor roles in films like Saeed-e-Havas and Atma Tarang. Later he worked with Minerva composers Bindu Khan and Habib Khan for harmonium accompaniment. As a music director he made his debut with Tamil films Jayakkodi and Vana Mohini. However recognition came his way through Bhagwan Dada"s Sukhi Jeevan. With time Ramachandra introduced the combination of alto sax, guitar and harmonica in his compositions. In one of his popular song, "Aana Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday" from Shehnai he also introduced whistling. For the song "Shola Jo Bhadke" from Albela he used the blend bongo, an oboe, a trumpet, a clarinet and a sax. He included rock rhythms in the song "Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo" which he himself sang along with Lata Mangeshkar.

The biggest success of C. Ramchandra arrived with the 1953 movie Anarkali for which he composed songs which are till date considered as legendary. "Yeh Zindagi Usiki Hai", "Jaag Dard-E-Ishq Jag", "Mohabbat Aise Dhadkan Hain", "Mujhse Mat Pooch Mere Ishq Main Kya Rakha Hai" and other songs from the movie got acclamations as masterpieces. His compositions in V. Shantaram"s Navrang which featured songs like "Adha Hai Chandrama", "Are Ja Re Hat Natkhat" etc are also unforgettable. The famous patriotic song "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo" was also composed by him and was sung by Lata Mangeshkar. C. Ramchandra rendered amazing musical score which accompanied a competition between two dancers played by Padmini and Vyjanthimala for the song "Kannum Kannum Kalanthu" from the Tamil movie Vanjikottai Valiban. He also remade the song for the Bollywood flick Raj Tilak as "Aaja To Aaja".

Apart from Hindi, C. Ramchandra composed music for Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bhojpuri movies as well. He ventured into film production in 1953 and co-produced three Hindi films name Duniya Gol Hai, Lehren and Jhanjhar along with New Sai Productions. He produced two Marathi movies titled Dhananjay and Gharkul in the late 1960s. Besides production he also acted and composed music for the film.

Personal Life of C. Ramchandra
In the year 1977 C. Ramchandra had authored his autobiography in Marathi. He died on 5th January 1982 in Mumbai owing to acute peptic ulcer.