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Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema in addition to Telugu cinema, Malayalam Cinema, Kannada cinema and Hindi cinema films. Regarded as one of the most prolific composers, in a career spanning over forty-nine years, he has composed over 8,600 songs, provided film scores for about 1,523 feature films in nine languages, and performed in over 20,000 concerts. He is nicknamed "Isaignani" (the musical sage) and is often referred to as "Maestro", the title conferred to him by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.
Ilaiyaraaja was one of the first Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music,Venkatraman, S. 1995. "Film music: the new intercultural idiom of 20th century Indian music". pp. 107–112 in A. Euba and C.T. Kimberlin (eds.). Intercultural Music Vol. I. Bayreuth: Breitinger (p. 110). and is the first Indian, as well as Asian to compose, record, and perform live a full Western classical symphony. In 1986, he became the first Indian composer to record a soundtrack with computer for the film Vikram. He also composed and orchestrated Thiruvasagam in Symphony (2006) - the first Indian oratorio.
In 2013, when CNN-IBN conducted a poll to commemorate 100 years of Indian cinema, he secured 49% of the vote and was adjudged the country's greatest music composer. In 2014, the American world cinema portal "Taste of Cinema" placed him at 9th position in its list of 25 greatest film composers in the history of cinema. He is the only Indian on the list, appearing alongside Ennio Morricone, John Williams, and Jerry Goldsmith.
Ilaiyaraaja received several awards for his works throughout his career. In 2012, for his creative and experimental works in the field of music, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to people in the field of performing arts. In 2010 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India, and in 2018 the Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award by the government of India. He is a nominated Member of Parliament in the Indian upper house Rajya Sabha since July 2022. A biographical film about his life titled "Ilaiyaraaja" was announced on 20 March 2024.
In Madras, he became a student of Master Dhanraj who nurtured his immense potential. Remembering his master, Ilaiyaraaja said, "My master’s tiny room was inhabited by Bach, Haydn, Brahms, Mozart and Beethoven. He trained me in classical music." Ilaiyaraaja emerged as the topper and a gold medalist in classical guitar after taking exam from the Trinity College of Music, London. He also learnt Carnatic music from T. V. Gopalakrishnan.
Ilaiyaraaja's use of Tamil folk music in his film scores injected new life in the Indian film score milieu.Baskaran, S.T. The Hindu. 6 January 2002. Retrieved 15 November 2006. By the mid-1980s, he started gaining increasing stature as a composer and music director in the South Indian film industries.Greene, P.D. 1997. Film music: Southern area. Pp. 542–546 in B. Nettl, R.M. Stone, J. Porter and T. Rice (eds.). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume V: South Asia—The Indian Subcontinent. New York: Garland Pub. (p. 544). He worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Kannadasan, Vaali, Vairamuthu, O. N. V. Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampi, Veturi, Acharya Aatreya, Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry, Chi. Udayashankar and Gulzar. Most of his compositions were sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki and K. S. Chithra.
He has composed a set of Carnatic kritis which were recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas for the album Ilayaraaja's Classicals on the Mandolin (1994). Ilaiyaraaja has also composed albums of religious/Bhakti songs. His Guru Ramana Geetam (2004) is a cycle of prayer songs inspired by the Hindu mystic Ramana Maharshi, and his Thiruvasakam: A crossover (2005) is an oratorio of ancient Tamil poems transcribed partially in English by American lyricist Stephen Schwartz and performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.Viswanathan, S. 2005. . Frontline 22 (15), 16–29 July. Retrieved 13 October 2006.Parthasarathy, D. 2004. . The Hindu, Friday, 26 November. Retrieved 1 March 2007. His most recent release is a world music-oriented album called The Music Messiah (2006).Soman, S. 2006. 'The Music Messiah' . The Hindu, Saturday, 30 December. Retrieved 27 February 2007. In 2025, he composed his first English classical symphony “Valiant”, performed by Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
In May 2020, he composed a song titled Bharath Bhoomi, as tribute to the people working amid COVID-19 pandemic. The song was crooned by S. P Balasubrahmanyam and the video of the song was unveiled by Ilaiyaraaja on his YouTube channel on 30 May 2020, in Tamil and Hindi.
On his birthday in 2020, Ilaiyaraaja announced the upcoming launch of his 'Isai OTT' Mobile app. He stated that the app would contain much more than just his songs, like behind-the-scenes trivia about how each song was conceived, produced, and delivered, as well as collaborations with other musicians.
Ilaiyaraaja's song 'Naanthaan Ungappanda' from the 1981 film Ram Lakshman was part of the playlist for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
His compositions Paayum Puli Title Music and Ilamai Itho were part of the soundtrack of Ashim Ahluwalia's 2012 Cannes Film Festival entry, Miss Lovely. The Lovebirds (2020) incorporated a section of Ilaiyaraaja's "Oru kili" soundtrack composed for the movie Aanandha Kummi (1983) as background music in its official trailer.
The Black Eyed Peas sampled the Ilaiyaraaja's composition "Unakkum Ennakum" from Sri Raghavendra (1985) for the song "The Elephunk Theme" in Elephunk (2003).Mehar, R. 2007. Hip-hopping around the world . The Hindu, 17 October. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
Ilaiyaraaja's song "Mella Mella Ennaithottu" from Vaazhkai was sampled by Rabbit Mac in the song Sempoi. Popular American rapper Meek Mill sampled one of Ilaiyaraaja's hit songs for Indian Bounce.
The alternative artist M.I.A. sampled "Kaatukuyilu" from the film Thalapathi (1991) for her song "Bamboo Banga" on the album Kala (2007).
Alphant sampled Ilaiyaraaja's music for his song An Indian Dream. Gonjasufi sampled Ilaiyaraaja's "Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza" from the movie Sadma.
A television retrospective titled Ithu Ilaiyaraja ("This is Ilaiyaraja") was produced, chronicling his career. "Ithu Ilaiyaraja". The Hindu. 1 July 2005. Retrieved 13 October 2006. He last performed live at the audio release function of the film Dhoni and before that, he performed a programme that was conducted and telecasted by Jaya TV titled Enrendrum Raja ("Everlasting Raja") on 28 December 2011 at Jahawarlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai.
On 5 September 2012, Ilayaraja performed in a live concert in Chennai with the Hungarian National Philharmonic orchestra; during this event the music launch of his films Neethaane En Ponvasantham and Yeto Vellipoyindhi Manasu took place. On 23 September 2012, he performed live in Bangalore at National High School Grounds.
On 16 February 2013, Ilayaraja made his first appearance in North America performing at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.Trinity Events [9] Retrieved 24 February 2013. The Toronto concert was promoted by Trinity Events for Vijay TV in India and produced by Sandy Audio Visual SAV Productions with PA+. Following his show at Toronto, Ilaiyaraaja also performed at the Prudential Center Newark, New Jersey, on 23 February 2013 and at the HP Pavilion at San Jose on 1March 2013. After his North America tour, he made a live performance at The O2 Arena in London on 24 August 2013, along with Kamal Haasan and his sons Yuvan Shankar Raja and Karthik Raja.
Ilaiyaraaja uses the same harmonium, both in his studio and in concerts. He has scored with it throughout his career. When he was younger, he was never allowed to touch it by his brother who thought he would spoil it. However, Ilaiyaraaja would play with it whenever his brother was not there, "that's how I learnt how to play," he said, "the harmonium knows that it was made for me. It tells me that there is more music to be made." The harmonium was reportedly bought for eighty-five rupees.
Ilaiyaraaja's musical style is characterised by an orchestration which is a synthesis of Indian folk music and Western classical music, with traditional Indian instruments and modes. He uses electronic music technology that integrates synthesizers, electric guitars and keyboards, drum machines, rhythm boxes and MIDI with large orchestras that feature traditional instruments such as the veena, venu, nadaswaram, dholak, mridangam and tabla as well as Western lead instruments such as saxophones and flutes. When asked to explain what his music is, Ilaiyaraaja said, "How can I explain anything? Everyone’s music is made of their own life experiences. To me music is that which connects human hearts. It is something that takes you to unknown levels."
On numerous occasions, Ilaiyaraaja has credited M. S. Viswanathan as an overwhelming influence on his music. "I could be a music director only by closely watching and listening to the great techniques introduced by M.S. Viswanthan in film music", he said. Ilaiyaraaja first played the organ for the song Malar Ethu Kankal Than in the film Avalukendru Or Manam for MSV. He later worked on composing background music for few of his films. Along with M.S. Viswanthan, he called Naushad, Roshan, Madan Mohan, and G.K. Venkatesh among several others, as the "great masters". Lata Mangeshkar and S. Janaki had been the singers with whom he experimented his songs relentlessly.
Ilaiyaraaja is nicknamed "Isaignani" (the musical sage), a title conferred by Kalaignar Karunanidhi. He is often referred to as "Maestro", the title conferred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London. He was one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music. This allowed him to craft a rich tapestry of sounds for films, and his themes and background score gained notice and appreciation among Indian film audiences.Venkatraman, S. 1995. "Film music: the new intercultural idiom of 20th century Indian music". pp. 107–112 in A. Euba and C.T. Kimberlin (eds.). Intercultural Music Vol. I. Bayreuth: Breitinger (p. 111). The range of expressive possibilities in Indian film music was broadened by his methodical approach to arranging, recording technique, and his drawing of ideas from a diversity of musical styles.
According to musicologist Paul Greene, Ilaiyaraaja's "deep understanding of so many different styles of music allowed him to create syncretic pieces of music combining very different musical idioms in unified, coherent musical statements". By virtue of this variety and his intermingling of Western, Indian folk and Carnatic music elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its folk qualities, the Indian classical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic ragas, and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound.Greene, P.D. 1997. Film music: Southern area. Pp. 542–546 in B. Nettl, R.M. Stone, J. Porter and T. Rice (eds.). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume V: South Asia—The Indian Subcontinent. New York: Garland Pub. (p. 545). His sense of visualisation for composing music is always to match up with the movie storyline and help the audience feel the emotions flavoured through his musical score. He mastered this art of blending music to the narration, which very few others managed to adapt themselves over a longer time.S. Theodore Baskaran "Jnana To Gana: Consistent eclecticism has kept Tamil film music virile" . Outlookindia.com, 26 June 2006. Although he uses a range of complex compositional techniques, he often sketches out the basic melodic ideas for films in a very spontaneous fashion.
Ilaiyaraaja has been awarded five National Film Awards—three for Best Music Direction and two for Best Background Score.Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. 2006. . Archived from the original on 18 April 2007. Retrieved 22 November 2006. In 2012, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practising artists, for his creative and experimental works in the music field. He is a gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London. In 2013, when the Indian news channel CNN-IBN conducted a poll commemorating 100 years of Indian cinema, he secured 49% of the people's vote and was adjudged as the country's greatest music composer; A. R. Rahman stood second with 29% of the vote.
Ilaiyaraaja is reputed to be one of the world's most prolific composers. He composed more than 8,600 songs, provided film scores for about 1,523 movies in nine languages, and performed in over 20,000 concerts. He is the only musician to have composed a song only in ascending notes. He was one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Tamil film music.
He composed the score and soundtrack for the 1984 Malayalam-language film My Dear Kuttichathan, the first stereoscopic 3D film made in India. In 1986, he became the first Indian composer to record a soundtrack with computer for the film Vikram. He composed the soundtrack for the movie Nayakan (1987), an Indian film which was ranked by Time magazine as one of the all-time 100 best movies.TIME Magazine. 2005. 23220, nayakan, 00.html All-TIME 100 Movies. Retrieved 13 October 2006. Director R. K. Selvamani said that for his film Chembaruthi (1992), Ilaiyaraaja composed nine songs in just 45 minutes which is a record. Actor Rajnikanth said Ilaiyaraaja used to complete the re-recording of three films in a single day without any sleep, whereas the present-day generation composers take 30 days for a single film.
On March 9, 2025, Ilaiyaraaja became the first-ever Indian, as well as Asian film composer to compose, record, and perform live a full Western classical symphony in London. He had reportedly written the entire symphony in 34 days. He also composed and orchestrated the critically acclaimed Thiruvasakam in Symphony (2006), the first Indian oratorio. With his illustrious work over decades, Ilaiyaraaja made a deep influence on the cultural landscape of Southern India.
Achille Forler, board member of the Indian Performing Right Society, said in 2017, "the kind of stellar body of work that Ilaiyaraaja has created in the last 40 years should have placed him among the world's top 10 richest composers, somewhere between Andrew Lloyd Webber ($1.2 billion) and Mick Jagger (over $300 million)."
British musician Andy Votel, described Ilaiyaraaja in an essay thus, "Whatever "genre" of music you choose to like/ love/ promote/ protect/ politicise/ over-intellectualize/ despise/ defend or pretend to enjoy, Ilaiyaraaja has done it." Carnatic vocalist T. M. Krishna stated that no other film composer has displayed the broad range of understanding music like the way Ilaiyaraaja did, and the way he adapts himself and creates music is "unfathomable" making him the "absolute master". G. K. Venkatesh, one of the earliest mentors of Ilaiyaraaja, remarked on his success thus: "He is not in awe of his creations. That is the secret of his success. An Ilaiyaraja song is overshadowed only by another Ilaiyaraja song."
Ilaiyaraaja's soundtrack for the 1991 film Thalapathi was included in The Guardians 100 Albums to Hear Before You Die. In 2003, according to an international poll conducted by BBC of more than half-a million people from 165 countries, his composition "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from Thalapathi was voted fourth in the top 10 most popular songs of all time. Cinematographer Santosh Sivan said that Ilaiyaraaja finished composing for the entire soundtrack of the film Thalapathi in less than "half a day".
During the recording for the song "Sundari" from the movie Thalapathi in Mumbai with R.D. Burman's orchestra, when Ilaiyaraaja gave the notes, they were so moved and taken in by the composition that all the musicians put their hands together in awe and gave him a standing ovation as a mark of respect.
Ilaiyaraaja regards the Tamil Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi as his spiritual guru.
In 2018, during a talk show in the US, Ilaiyaraaja expressed his doubts regarding the credibility of the Christian belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and claimed that resurrection happened only in the case of the Hindu saint Ramana Maharshi. In protest, a Christian group lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner of Trichy, demanding an apology or police action against Ilaiyaraaja for raising doubt about the "ultimate belief of Christians".
In early 2022, talking about the state of music composers in industry, Ilaiyaraaja said, "There are no composers in the film industry today; there are only programmers."
In April 2022, Ilaiyaraaja triggered a controversy by writing a foreword in the book titled, "Ambedkar & Modi—Reformer's Ideas", in which he praised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and compared him to B.R. Ambedkar. When he received some criticism, leaders from BJP came to his support.
Career
Session musician and orchestrator
During the 1970s, Ilaiyaraaja played guitar in a band-for-hire, and worked as a Session musician, keyboardist, and organist for film music composers and directors such as Salil Chowdhury from West Bengal.Gautam, S. The Hindu. 13 November 2004. Retrieved 13 October 2006.Chennai, S. "Looking back: flawless harmony in his music". The Hindu. 20 November 2005. Retrieved 15 November 2006.Choudhury, R. 2005. The films of Salil Chowdhury: Introduction . Retrieved 16 November 2006. Chowdhury once remarked that "Ilaiyaraaja is going to become the best composer in India". "Our main guitarist in Madras is the best composer in India", he said. After being hired as musical assistant to Kannada film composer G. K. Venkatesh, he worked on 200 film projects, mostly in Kannada cinema.Vijayakar, R. "The prince in Mumbai". Screen. 21 July 2006. Retrieved 6 February 2007. As Venkatesh's assistant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestration the melodic outlines developed by Venkatesh, and learn about composing under Venkatesh's guidance. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began to write his own scores. To listen to his compositions, he used to persuade Venkatesh's to play excerpts from his scores during their leisure times.
Film score composer
At the start of his career, the music sensibility of Ilaiyaraaja was very different to the film music composed in those days. Even though he spent a lot of his time learning, he "wasn't able to grasp how music was being made for films." However, in 1975 when film producer Panchu Arunachalam was impressed by a song Ilaiyaraaja casually sung, he commissioned him to compose the songs and film score for the Tamil film Annakili (1976). For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies. This resulted in creation of a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. Initially he was little apprehensive about how his work would be received, he thought musicians in the industry may write him off. However, when Annakili released in 1976, the music became a huge hit. For his following 12 films, Ilaiyaraaja based his compositions on the contemporary film music. Later, when a new wave of films started to come, they opened the space for the kind of music he wanted to explore.Greene, P.D. 2001. "Authoring the Folk: the crafting of a rural popular music in south India". Journal of Intercultural Studies 22 (2): 161–172.Sivanarayanan, A. 2004. Translating Tamil poetry. World Literature Today 78(2): 56–58.
Non-cinematic output
Ilaiyaraaja's first two non-film albums were explorations in the fusion of Indian and Western classical music. The first, How to Name It? (1986), is dedicated to the Carnatic master Tyagaraja and to J. S. Bach. It features a fusion of the Carnatic form and ragas with Bach , and Baroque musical textures.Greene, P.D. 1997. Film music: Southern area. Pp. 542–546 in B. Nettl, R.M. Stone, J. Porter and T. Rice (eds.). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Volume V: South Asia—The Indian Subcontinent. New York: Garland Pub. (pp. 544–545). The second, Nothing But Wind (1988), was performed by flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and a 50-piece orchestra and takes the conceptual approach suggested in the title—that music is a "natural phenomenon akin to various forms of air currents".Oriental Records. Undated. Nothing But Wind . Retrieved 19 November 2006.
Live performances
Ilaiyaraaja rarely performs his music live. His first major live performance since his debut was a four-hour concert held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai, India, on 16 October 2005.Rangarajan, M. The Hindu. 21 October 2005. Retrieved 13 October 2006. He performed in 2004 in Italy at the Teatro Comunale di Modena, an event-concert presented for the 14th edition of Angelica, Festival Internazionale Di Musica, co-produced with the L'Altro Suono Festival.Van Ryssen, S. "Ilaiyaraaja's Musical Journey". Leonardo Digital Review. December 2005. Retrieved 7 March 2007.
Musical style and sensibility
Ilaiyaraaja, once reflecting over his works after turning seventy-five, said his "life experiences and learning" have been the fount from which his musical output poured, but sometimes felt that some of his compositions transcended them as if they were "the reflection of the efforts of past lives — mine, or those of other musical exponents." When enquired if it was mystical as in the case of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, who insisted he received math formula in dreams from a goddess, Ilaiyaraaja said that unlike Ramanujan who felt a supernatural being guiding him, he always felt a moment of clarity when a composition came to his mind — "It is as if I am the subject and the object of art at the same time when that happens," he said. Nevertheless, he regards music as a form of spiritual seeking, where one needs to keep their "inner eye constantly open", but also assist it with vigorous work, "In my early years, I would be in the studio till 11 pm. Come home, have bath and dinner, and write music till 2 am. I would wake up by 4, sit down to do my music and be at the studio at sharp 7 am. Music is everything to me. Do you know it took me 27 years to understand the C major chord on the piano", he said.
Honours and legacy
In 2010, Ilaiyaraaja was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour in India and the Padma Vibhushan in 2018, the second-highest civilian award by the government of India. On 6 July 2022, Ilaiyaraaja was nominated to the Rajya Sabha as Member of Parliament by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. In November 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred an honorary doctorate to Ilaiyaraaja during the 36th Convocation Ceremony of Gandhigram Rural Institute in Tamil Nadu's Dindigul.
Personal life
Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva, and the couple has three children—Karthik Raja, Bhavatharini and Yuvan Shankar Raja—all of them are film composers and singers.Staff reporter. "Ilaiyaraja's daughter gets engaged". The Hindu. 5 August 2005. Retrieved 3 March 2007. Jeeva died on 31 October 2011. His brother, Gangai Amaran, is also a music director and lyricist in the Tamil film industry, and both were not on talking terms for 13 years until they met in February 2022. His only daughter Bhavatharini died of liver cancer on 25 January 2024.
Legal issues and controversies
In 2017, claiming copyright violations, Ilaiyaraaja sent legal notices to singers, S. P Balasubrahmanyam, his son S. P. Charan and Chithra, prohibiting them from singing his compositions without his consent, and warned they would have to pay huge royalties and face legal action if they do so. Ilaiyaraaja's brother Gangai Amaran criticized him, saying legal notice to SPB is 'foolishness'.
Discography
Ilaiyaraaja 1970s Ilaiyaraaja 1980s Ilaiyaraaja 1990s Ilaiyaraaja 2000s Ilaiyaraaja 2010s Ilaiyaraaja 2020s New / Non-Film
See also
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Categories: Official Url, Official Website, Best Music Direction National Film Award Winners, Best Background Score National Film Award Winners, Living People, Recipients Of The Padma Bhushan In Arts, Recipients Of The Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Tamil Playback Singers, Tamil Film Score Composers, Telugu Film Score Composers, Kannada Film Score Composers, Kerala State Film Award Winners, Malayalam Film Score Composers, Alumni Of Trinity College Of Music, 20th-century Indian Musicians, 20th-century Classical Composers, 21st-century Indian Classical Composers, Indian Male Singers, Musicians From Chennai, Indian Tamil People, Telugu Playback Singers, Indian Composers Of Western Classical Music, Kannada Playback Singers, Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Winners, Filmfare Awards South Winners, Nandi Award Winners, 1943 Births, People From Theni District, Indian Male Playback Singers, Indian Male Musicians, Recipients Of The Padma Vibhushan In Arts, Indian Male Film Score Composers, Indian Classical Pianists, Nominated Members Of The Rajya Sabha
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