industries. Before making his with the Malayalam movie Swaham in 1994, he studied Film Direction and Screenplay Editing at the FTTI in Pune, after which he assisted G. Aravindan on the movies Thampu, Kummatty, and Esthappan. Predominantly a part of Malayalam cinema, Kottukapally has worked on the music of several movies that have won him four Kerala State Film Award for Best Background Score.

While his debut was a Malayalam movie, his next was the Kannada movie Thaayi Saheba, which went on to the National Film Award for Best Film. He then made his Hindi movie debut in 2002 with Nishaad, and in 2006 he composed the music of the 2006 Telugu movie Kamli. The same year, in 2006, Kottukapally made his Tamil movie debut by composing the music of Kurukshetram. Having worked for the most prominent film industries in India, Kottukapally has movies like Margam, Kaya Taran, Hasina, Thoovanam, and Gulabi Talkies to his credit among many others. In 2017, Kottukapally composed the music for the Kannada drama Maarikondavaru, starring Sanchari Vijay, Samyukta Hornad, Sardar Sathya, and Sonu Gowda in pivotal roles.