Music Director Ilayaraja Profile

Ilayaraja is a veteran music director of South Indian film industry. has composed over 4000 songs and worked in over 800 films, in a career spanning over three decades.
He is also an instrumentalist, conductor, and a songwriter.

Ilayaraja was born on June 2, 1943 in a poor family living in a small village “Pannaipuram”, located in Theni district of Tamil Nadu,
He was originally name Gnanadesikan by his father Ramaswamy and mother Chinnathayammal. Ilayaraja spent his childhood in the rural area of Pannaipuram, which sowed the seeds of music in him. He was well acquainted with the range of Tamil folk music prevalent in the place.

At the age of 14, Ilayaraja joined a travelling musical troupe headed by his elder stepbrother, Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout South India.

Ilayaraja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras which included an overview of Western classical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance.
As he was a gold Medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, in 1993 he became the first Asian to compose a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London’s Walthamstow Town Hall.

Ilayaraja worked with a band-for-hire in Chennai, as a guitarist in the 1970s. Thereafter, he worked as a session guitarist, keyboardist and conducted the orchestra for renowned film music directors, including Salil Chowdhury. Later on, Ilayaraja worked as an assistant to Kannada music director G K Venkatesh, with whom he worked on around 200 films.

And while working Ilayaraja penned his own music compositions as well. He listened to his own compositions by asking the session musicians to play excerpts from his scores. In the meantime, he also hired instruments from R K Shekhar (AR Rahman’s father), who later on joined the orchestra as its keyboardist.

In 1976, film producer Panchu Arunachalam commissioned Ilayaraja to compose the songs and film score for a Tamil-language film called Annakkili For the soundtrack, Ilayaraja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which created a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. Ilayaraja’s use of Tamil music in his film scores injected new influence into the Indian film score milieu. By the mid-1980s Ilayaraja was gaining increasing stature as a film composer and music director in the South Indian film industry.

Ilayaraja composed a variety of non-film music, including religious and devotional songs, an oratorio, and world music, while shifting his focus to Malayalam and Kannada-language films.

Ilayaraja is accredited with setting a trend for film music in South India, by introducing Western musical nuances into songs.

Apart from Tamil, Ilayaraja has also worked in Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films as a music director. The musician has been awarded the title of Isaignani (‘savant of music’).

Ilayaraja’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 Tyāgarāja and to J. S. Bach. The second, Nothing But Wind.

Ilayaraja is married to Jeeva and has two sons and a daughter. His sons, Karthik Raaja and Yuvan Shankar Raaja are regarded as two of the best music directors of the present generation. His daughter, Bhavathaarini, is a playback singer. Ilayaraja’s brother – Gangai Amaran – is a renowned director-lyricist and music composer.

Ilayaraja remains one of the most popular composers ever in the South Indian film industry,and also in the list of world’s top selling music artists.

Awards:

National Film Award for Best Music Direction : “Saagara Sangamam” (1984),    “Sindhu Bhairavi” (1986) and “Rudraveena” (1989)

Gold Remi Award for Best Music Score : “Vishwa Thulasi” (2005)
Kalaimamani Award from the Government of the State of Tamil Nadu, India
State Government Award from Government of Kerala in 1995
Madhya Pradesh State Award in 1998
NTR National Award in 2004.

Filmography:

Telugu

Mantrigari Viyyankudu
Sitaara
Saagara Sangamam
Swathi Muthyam
Anweshana
Rudraveena
Swarna Kamalam

Tamil

Sigappu Rojakkal
Tick! Tick! Tick!
Moondram Pirai
Muthal Mariyathai
Sindhu Bhairavi
Mouna Raagam
Punnagai Mannan

Malayalam

Kaalapani
Guru
Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal
Friends
Manasina kkare
Achuvinte Amma
Rasathantram

Original Name   : Gnanadesikan
Film Name         : Ilayaraja
Date of Birth      : June 2nd, 1943.
Birth place         : Pannaipuram , Tamil Nadu.
Profession           : Music Director, Bollywood.
Family                 : Wife , three children.
Debut Film         : Annakkili