Ilaiyaraaja

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. In 1986, he became the first Indian composer to record a soundtrack with computer for the film Vikram. In 2013, when CNN-IBN conducted a poll to commemorate 100 years of Indian cinema, Ilaiyaraaja secured 49% of the vote and was adjudged the country's greatest music composer. In 2025, he became the first-ever Asian, as well as Indian film composer to compose, record, and perform live a full Western classical symphony in London. He also composed and orchestrated Thiruvasagam in Symphony (2006) - the first Indian oratorio. 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.

• Birth Name — Gnanathesigan • Born — 3 June 1943 • Birthplace — Pannaipuram, Madras Presidency, British India • Alias — * Isaignani • Maestro • Education — Trinity Laban (Classical guitar) • Genre — *Film score • world music • classical • oratorio • folk • rock • jazz • Occupation — *Composer • Arranger • Conductor • Orchestrator • Instrumentalist • Lyricist • Playback singer • Film producer • Instruments — *Vocals (Playback singing) • Guitar • keyboard • harmonium • Flute • Synthesizer • organ • Piano • Violin • Cello • Mridangam • Tabla • Ghatam • Drums • Years Active — 1976–present • Associated Acts — *Salil Choudhury • G. K. Venkatesh • M. S. Viswanathan • John Scott • Yuvan Shankar Raja (Son) • G. Devarajan • V. Dakshinamoorthy

Ilaiyaraaja was born as Gnanathesigan in a Dalit family in Pannaipuram, at present-day Theni district in Tamil Nadu, India, on 3 June 1943. He however celebrates his birthday on 2 June to honour M. Karunanidhi, whose birthdate also falls on 3 June. It was Karunanidhi who gave Ilaiyaraaja the title "Isaignani". Ilaiyaraaja grew up in a rural area and was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music in his formative years. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe named "Pavalar Brothers", headed by his elder brother Pavalar Varadharajan, and spent the next decade performing across South India. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical adaptation of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate, Kannadasan, for India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In the initial years he used to set tunes to the songs of his brother Pavalar Varadarajan, who was a member of the Communist Party of India. He later went to Madras (now Chennai) along with brother Bhaskar to learn music. They had only 400 rupees, which their mother had procured by selling off the home radio. They knew no one in the city and were confident to live off the payments they would receive by singing for people on the streets. In Madras, he became a student of Master Dhanraj, who trained him in classical music. Ilaiyaraaja emerged as the top student and a gold medalist in classical guitar after taking an exam at the Trinity College of Music in London, England. He also learnt Carnatic music from T. V. Gopalakrishnan.

When he started school, his father, Ramasamy changed his name from Gnanathesigan This is different from the name in the infobox, and needs better sources. to "Rasappa," and the people in his village called him "Raasaiya". When he joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical instruments, the master changed his name from "Raasaiya" to "Raja". While working for his first film Annakili (1976), Tamil film producer Panchu Arunachalam added the prefix "Ilaiya" (meaning 'younger' in Tamil) to the name "Raaja", and renamed him as "Ilaiyaraaja", as in the 1970s there was another popular music director with the same suffix, A. M. Rajah.

During the 1970s, Ilaiyaraaja played guitar in a band-for-hire, and worked as a session guitarist, keyboardist, and organist for film music composers and directors such as Salil Chowdhury from West Bengal. 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. As Venkatesh's assistant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestrate 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 session musicians to play excerpts from his scores during their leisure times.

• Illustration — Ilaiyaraaja at the inauguration of 91st Music Academy Concerts & Conferences 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. 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. A television retrospective titled Ithu Ilaiyaraja ("This is Ilaiyaraja") was produced, chronicling his career. 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. 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, 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. 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." • Illustration — Ilaiyaraaja speaking after receiving the centenary award at the 46th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2015), in Panaji, Goa 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. 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 elements, Ilaiyaraaja's compositions appeal to the Indian rural dweller for its rhythmic folk qualities, the Indian classical music enthusiast for the employment of Carnatic ragas, and the urbanite for its modern, Western-music sound. 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. 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 was married to his sister's daughter, Jeeva (who died in 2011). He has three children with her—Karthik Raja, Bhavatharini and Yuvan Shankar Raja—all of whom are film composers and singers. Jeeva died on 31 October 2011. His brother, Gangai Amaran, is also a music director and lyricist in the Tamil film industry. The composer was engaged in a 13 year feud with Amaran, until February 2022, when they both met. His only daughter Bhavatharini died of liver cancer on 25 January 2024. Despite being born and raised Christian, Ilaiyaraaja has converted to Hinduism, and regards the Tamil Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi as his spiritual guru.

• Illustration — Ilaiyaraaja (center) with Kamal Haasan (left) and Rajinikanth (right) at the Nadigar Sangam Protest in 2018 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'. 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. He is reported to have said, "I regularly watch documentaries on Youtube. It is said that Jesus was not resurrected". In protest, a Christian group lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner of Tiruchi, demanding police action against Ilaiyaraaja, or an apology from him, for raising doubt about the "ultimate belief of Christians". In early 2022, while 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 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and compared him to the celebrated anti-caste activist B.R. Ambedkar. He was criticized by anti-caste activists and politicians who alleged that "Ambedkar worked for the uplift of the downtrodden and oppressed castes, and Ilaiyaraaja's comparison was an insult to Ambedkar". Supporters of Modi's BJP party, however, defended his comparison, citing his freedom of speech.