Ilayaraja Biography

Ilaiyaraaja is a critically acclaimed Indian film composer, singer, and lyricist and the first Asian Composer to score a Symphony. He is a gold medalist from the Trinity College of Music, London, has composed over 4,500 songs and provided film scores for more than 900 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years.

He is based in Chennai, the fourth largest city in India and the centre of the Tamil film industry (colloquially known as Kollywood).

Ilaiyaraaja is a prominent composer of film music in South Indian cinema from the late 1970s till date. His work integrated Tamil folk lyricism and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. He has thrice won the Indian National Film Award for best film scoring.

In the 2000s, he composed a range of non-film music, including religious and devotional songs, an oratorio, and world music. He is married to Jeeva, and the couple's two sons (Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar Raja) and daughter (Bhavatharini) are film music composers and singers.

Early Life

Ilaiyaraaja was born into a poor rural Dalit family in Pannaipuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India, as the third son of Daniel Ramaswamy and Chinnathayammal. Growing up in a rural area, Ilaiyaraaja was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe headed by his elder step-brother, Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout South India.

While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical setting of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan for Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.

In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai), which included an overview of Western classical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance. Ilaiyaraaja specialized in classical guitar and had done a course in it from the Trinity College of Music, London.

Awards And Honours

Ilaiyaraaja has won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the films Saagara Sangamam (1984), Sindhu Bhairavi (1986) and Rudraveena (1989). He also won the National Film Award for Best Background Score for the Malayalam film Pazhassi Raja (2010). He won the Gold Remi Award for Best Music Score jointly with film composer M. S. Viswanathan at the World Fest-Houston Film Festival for the film Vishwa Thulasi (2005).

He was conferred the title Isaignani ('savant of music') in 1988 by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and received the Kalaimamani Award, an annual award for excellence in the field of arts from the government of the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

He also received state government awards from the governments of Kerala (1995), Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (The Lata Mangeshkar Award -1998) for excellence in music.

He was awarded honorary doctorates by Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India (Degree of Doctor of Letter - Honoris causa - March, 1994), the World University Round Table, Arizona, U.S.A. (Cultural Doctorate in Philosophy of Music - April, 1994), and Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu (Degree of Doctor of Letters - 1996).

He received an Award of Appreciation from the Foundation and Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (1994), and later that year was presented with an honorary citizenship and key to the Teaneck township by Mr. John Abraham, Mayor of Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.A.