अब आप न्यूज्ड हिंदी में पढ़ सकते हैं। यहाँ क्लिक करें
Home » Biography » Ilaiyaraaja Biography: Age, Birthday, Early Life, Career, Personal Life, Awards

Ilaiyaraaja Biography: Age, Birthday, Early Life, Career, Personal Life, Awards

In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has composed over 4,500 tracks and provided film compositions for more than 900 Indian films in various languages.

By Newsd
Updated on :
Ilaiyaraaja Biography
Ilaiyaraaja Biography

Ilaiyaraaja Biography: Ilaiyaraaja is the first Asian composer to score a symphony and a critically acclaimed Indian film composer, vocalist, and lyricist. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has composed over 4,500 tracks and provided film compositions for more than 900 Indian films in various languages. He holds a gold medal from the Trinity College of Music in London.

He resides in Chennai, the fourth-largest city in India and the centre of the Tamil film industry, also known colloquially as Kollywood. Ilaiyaraaja has been a prominent film music composer in South Indian cinema since the late 1970s. His work incorporated Tamil vernacular lyricism and introduced Western musical sensibilities to the mainstream of South Indian music. Three times he has been awarded the Indian National Film Award for best film score.

Ilaiyaraaja Biography

Early Years

Ilaiyaraaja was born in Pannaipuram, a small village in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu, India on June 2, 1943 to an impoverished family. He was given the name Gnanadesikan by his parents, Ramaswamy and Chinnathayammal. Ilaiyaraaja’s upbringing in the rural region of Pannaipuram instilled the roots of music within him. He was well-versed in the variety of Tamil folk music prevalent at the location.

Ilaiyaraaja joined his step-brother Pavalar Varadarajan’s musical troupe at the age of 14 and remained affiliated with it for the next ten years. Ilayaraja composed his first song, an elegy penned by the veteran Tamil poet Kannadasan, while he was still a member of the troupe. Ilayaraja and Professor Dhanraj established a music course in Madras in 1968. The course focused on an overview of Western classical music, the study of compositional techniques, and instrumental performance. After specialising in classical guitar, Ilayaraja attended the Trinity College of Music in London to study the instrument.

Ilaiyaraaja Career

In the 1970s, Ilayaraja laboured in Chennai as a guitarist for a hired ensemble. After that, he worked as a session guitarist, keyboardist, and orchestra conductor for renowned film composers, including Salil Chowdhury. Later, Ilayaraja worked as an assistant to G K Venkatesh, a Kannada music director with whom he collaborated on approximately 200 films. While collaborating with him, Ilayaraja also composed his own musical works. He heard his own compositions by requesting that the session musicians perform extracts from his scores. In the interim, he also rented instruments from R K Shekhar, the father of AR Rahman, who later joined the orchestra as a keyboardist.

1976 marked Ilayaraja’s debut as a film music director, when he composed the tunes and background score for the Tamil film Annakkili. His music reached a broad audience of Tamils. He utilised the technique of modern film orchestration to infuse the lyricists’ Tamil poetry with vitality. Ilayaraja’s compositions of folk song melodies were rapidly embraced by music enthusiasts. During the early years of his career as a music director, the songs from “Pathinaru Vayathinile” (1977), “Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri” (1977), and “Annai Oru Aalayam” (1979) were among the super successes.

The early 1990s brought Ilayaraja the same acclaim. “Anjali” (1990), “Thalapathi” (1991), “Michael Madana Kamarajan” (1991), “Guna” (1992), “Thevar Magan” (1992), “Magalir Mattum” (1994), “Sirai Chaalai” (1996), and “Sethu” (1999) are among his finest works from the 1990s. With the advent of the new millennium, Ilayaraja reduced the number of films he produced annually from countless to a handful. But the enchantment in his melodies persisted. Ilayaraja demonstrated his skill as a composer not only in Tamil films. But also in a number of Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and a few Hindi films.

Ilaiyaraaja Personal Life

Ilayaraja is wed to Jeeva and has three children: two sons and a daughter. His sons, Karthik Raaja and Yuvan Shankar Raaja, are regarded as two of the generation’s finest music directors. Bhavathaarini, his daughter, is a playback vocalist. Gangai Amaran, Ilayaraja’s sibling, is a renowned director-lyricist and music composer.

Lonnie Adolphsen Biography, Birthday, Career, Age, Height and Net Worth

Addy Maxwell Biography, Birthday, Career, Age, Height and Net Worth

Ilaiyaraaja Awards

  • “Saagara Sangamam” (1984), “Sindhu Bhairavi” (1986), and “Rudraveena” (1989) have all won the National
  • Film Award for Best Music Direction.
  • “Vishwa Thulasi” (2005) won the Gold Remi for Best Music Score.
  • Kalaimamani Award presented by the Government of Tamil Nadu, India
  • Government of Kerala State Government Award in 1995
  • State Award for Madhya Pradesh in 1998
  • 2004 NTR National Award

Related