Chitti Babu was only 12 years old when his parents decided to move to Chennai.

He had come to Chennai to primarily act as a child artiste, in a movie called "Laila Majnu", which was being produced by yesteryear heroine Bhanumathi along with Dr. Akkineni Nageswara Rao (Dr. ANR) - both of whom were in their early days as film stars. Chitti Babu acted as the young Majnu in the movie and had even received a couple of other offers to act in movies.

But even at the age of 12, he was steadfast in his goal to learn Veena and accomplish something as a Veena Artiste. He chose to forego lucrative offers and focused hs energies in learning Veena under the inspiring tutelage of Emani Sankara Sastry

However, the era was conservatve, and he went thru his struggle as an aspiring artiste, wanting to give performances, but was met with shut doors, as some cultural organizations, preferred featuring stalwarts to debutants. 

So, even though, performng classical concerts was his first love, in the absence of any major breaks, in order to earn his livelihood and also to keep his passion alive, he had started playing the Veena as a free-lancer, for movie soundtracks and numbers under the batons of many leading Music Directors of the time in telugu and tamil movies, notable under Saluri Rajeswara Rao, Pendyala Nageswara Rao, the duo of Viswanathan- Ramamurthi among others.

He continued to be a free-lancing recording artiste for movies while awaiting his break to perform Classical Music, as a concert artiste.