Gangaraju, professionally known as Hamsalekha, is an Indian film composer and songwriter who works in South Indian cinema, predominantly in the Kannada film industry since the late 1980s. He is also a screenplay writer, dialogue writer, instrumentalist and conductor, having composed and written over 500 albums.

Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. Kannada cinema is based in Gandhi Nagar, Bangalore. The 1934 film Sati Sulochana directed by Y. V. Rao was the first talkie film released in the Kannada language. It was also the first film starring Subbaiah Naidu and Tripuramba, and the first screened in the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom. It was produced by Chamanlal Doongaji, who in 1932 founded South India Movietone in Bangalore.