Ilaiyaraaja - wikipedia Ilaiyaraaja This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 27 November 2017. Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja at his studio in Chennai Background information Birth name Gnanathesikan Also known as Ilaiyaraaja, Raaja ( 1943 - 06 - 02 ) 2 June 1943 ( age 74 ) Pannaipuram, Theni district, India Genres Film score, World music Occupation ( s ) Film score composer, lyricist, music director, songwriter, singer, conductor, instrumentalist and Film producer Instruments Vocals, ( playback singing ), guitar, keyboard, harmonium, piano Years active 1976 -- present Website www.ilaiyaraajalive.com Ilaiyaraaja ( born 2 June 1943 as Gnanathesikan ) is an Indian film composer who works in the South Indian cinema, predominantly in Tamil since the mid 1970s. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian music composers of all time, Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor singer, and songwriter. He has composed more than 6500 songs and provided film scores for more than 1000 films, also being acclaimed for his exceptional background scores. Singers S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, K.S. Chithra and S. Janaki have sung more of his songs than any other singers. He integrated folk -- in Tamil -- and introduced western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. Ilaiyaraja is also known for creating music by fusing symphonic orchestration with traditional Indian instrumentation, often performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. In 1993, he organised a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and thus became the First Indian to compose a full symphony, with Ravi Shankar being the only other Indian to do so. He is also the first Asian to compose a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has won five Indian National Film Awards ( the highest film honor in India ) ; three for Best Music Direction and two for Best Background Score. In 2010 he has received the Padma Bhushan, awarded by the Government of India. In the 2000s, he composed a variety of non-film music, including religious and devotional songs, an oratorio and world music. He is usually referred to by the title Isaignani ( English : Musical Genius ), or as The Maestro. Ilaiyaraja is a gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London. In 2003, according to an international poll conducted by BBC, more than half - a million people from 165 countries voted his composition Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu from the 1991 film Thalapathi as the fourth in the world 's top 10 most popular songs of all time. He was also nominated in the Best Indian album Music Awards category at US based Just Plain Folks Music Organization, which is the largest grassroots music organization in the world, and stood third for his `` Music Journey : Live in Italy ''. In 2012, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his creative and experimental works in the music field. In 2014, he has been chosen for his outstanding contribution to the Indian film music and was awarded the SIES Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati National Eminence award. In 2015, he was also honoured with the Centenary Award for lifetime achievement at the 46th International Film Festival of India ( IFFI ) at Panaji, Goa. On December 31, 2015, he was nominated by the Kerala Government for Nishagandi Puraskaram, the top award conferred by the Kerala Government 's Tourism Ministry, for his artistic excellence and contributions to the Indian film industry. Popular world cinema portal `` Taste of Cinema '' placed Ilaiyaraja at the 9th position in its list of 25 greatest film composers in cinema history, thus becoming the only Indian to feature in that list. In a poll conducted by CNN - IBN celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema in 2013, Ilaiyaraaja was voted as the greatest music composer of India with a maximum of 49 %. Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Early exposure to music 3 Session musician and film orchestrator 4 Film composer 4.1 Impact and musical style 5 Musical characteristics 6 Non-cinematic output 7 Notable works 8 Live performances 9 Copyrights Controversy 10 Ilaiyaraaja discography 11 See also 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links Early life and family Ilaiyaraaja was born as Gnanathesikan in 1943 in a normal middle - class family in Pannaipuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India. When he joined school his father changed his name to `` Rajaiya '', but his village people used to call him `` Raasayya ''. Ilaiyaraaja joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical instruments and the master renamed and called him just `` Raaja ''. In his first movie Annakili, Tamil film producer Panchu Arunachalam added `` Ilaiya '' ( Ilaiya means younger in Tamil language ) as a prefix in his name Raaja, and he named him as `` Ilaiyaraaja '', because in the 1970s there was one more music director A.M. Rajah who was a popular one. Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva and the couple has three children -- Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Bhavatharini -- all film composers and singers. His wife Jeeva died on 31 October 2011. Ilaiyaraaja has a brother ; Gangai Amaran, who is also a music director and lyricist in the Tamil film industry. Early exposure to music Ilaiyaraaja grew up in a rural area, exposed to a range of Tamil folk music. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe headed by his elder brother Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout 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 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 taken a course in it at the Trinity College of Music, London. Session musician and film orchestrator In the 1970s in Chennai, 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. After being hired as the musical assistant to Kannada film composer G.K. Venkatesh, he worked on 200 film projects, mostly in Kannada cinema. As G.K. Venkatesh 's assistant, Ilaiyaraaja would orchestrate the melodic outlines developed by Venkatesh. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began writing his own scores. To hear his compositions, he would persuade Venkatesh 's session musicians to play excerpts from his scores during their break times. Film composer In 1975, film producer Panchu Arunachalam commissioned him to compose the songs and film score for a Tamil - language film called Annakkili ( `` The Parrot '' ). For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja 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. Ilaiyaraaja 's use of Tamil music in his film scores injected new influence into the Indian film score milieu. By the mid-1980s Ilaiyaraaja was gaining increasing stature as a film composer and music director in the South Indian film industry. He has worked with Indian poets and lyricists such as Kannadasan, Vaali, Vairamuthu, O.N.V. Kurup, Sreekumaran Thampi, Veturi Sundararama Murthy, Aacharya Aatreya, Sirivennela Sitaramasastri, Chi. Udaya Shankar and Gulzar and is well known for his association with filmmakers such as Bharathiraja, S.P. Muthuraman, J. Mahendran, Balu Mahendra, K. Balachander, Mani Ratnam, Sathyan Anthikkad, Priyadarshan, Fazil, Vamsy, K. Vishwanath, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao and R. Balki. Impact and musical style Ilaiyaraaja 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 Ilaiyaraaja 's methodical approach to arranging, recording technique, and his drawing of ideas from a diversity of musical styles. According to musicologist P. 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 ''. Ilaiyaraaja has composed Indian film songs that amalgamated elements of genres such as Afro - tribal, bossa nova, dance music ( e.g., disco ), doo - wop, flamenco, acoustic guitar - propelled Western folk, funk, Indian classical, Indian folk / traditional, jazz, march, pathos, pop, psychedelia and rock and roll. 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. Ilaiyaraaja 's sense of visualization for composing music is always to match up with the story line of the running movie and possibly by doing so, he creates the best experience for the audience to feel the emotions flavored 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 Ilaiyaraaja uses a range of complex compositional techniques, he often sketches out the basic melodic ideas for films in a very spontaneous fashion. Musical characteristics Ilaiyaraaja 's music is characterised by the use of an orchestration technique that is a synthesis of Western and Indian instruments and musical 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. The basslines in his songs tend to be melodically dynamic, rising and falling in a dramatic fashion. Polyrhythms are also apparent, particularly in songs with Indian folk or Carnatic influences. The melodic structure of his songs demand considerable vocal virtuosity, and have found expressive platform amongst some of India 's respected vocalists and playback singers, such as Rajkumar, T.M. Soundararajan, K.J. Yesudas, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki, P. Susheela, Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Jayachandran, S.P. Sailaja, Jency, Swarnalatha, K.S. Chithra, Minmini, Sujatha, Malaysia Vasudevan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Hariharan, Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam and Shreya Ghoshal. Ilaiyaraaja has sung over 400 of his own compositions for films, and is recognisable by his stark, deep voice. He has penned the lyrics for some of his songs in Tamil. 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 Tyāgarāja and to J.S. Bach. It features a fusion of the Carnatic form and ragas with Bach partitas, fugues and Baroque musical textures. 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 ( e.g., the wind, breeze, tempest etc. ). He has composed a set of Carnatic kritis that was recorded by electric mandolinist U. Srinivas for the album Ilayaraaja 's Classicals on the Mandolin ( 1994 ). Ilaiyaraaja has also composed albums of religious / devotional 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. Ilaiyaraaja 's most recent release is a world music - oriented album called The Music Messiah ( 2006 ). Notable works Ilaiyaraaja 's composition `` Rakkama Kaiya Thattu '', sung by SPB and Swarnalatha in the movie Thalapathi ( 1991 ), was among the songs listed in a BBC World Top Ten music poll. The soundtrack of My Dear Kuttichathan, the first stereoscopic 3D film made in India is composed by him. He composed the music for Nayagan ( 1987 ), an Indian film ranked by TIME Magazine as one of the all - time 100 best movies, a number of India 's official entries to the Oscars, such as Swathi Muthyam ( 1986 ), Nayagan ( 1987 ), Thevar Magan ( 1992 ), Anjali ( 1991 ), Guru ( 1997 ) and Hey Ram ( 2000 ), and for Indian art films such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan 's FIPRESCI Prize - winning Nizhalkuthu ( `` The Shadow Kill '' ) ( 2002 ). Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for events such as the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant that was held in Bangalore, India, and for a documentary called India 24 Hours ( 1996 ). The Black Eyed Peas sampled the Ilaiyaraaja composition `` Unakkum Ennakum '' from Sri Raghavendra ( 1985 ), for the song `` The Elephunk Theme '' on Elephunk ( 2003 ). The alternative artist M.I.A. sampled `` Kaatukuyilu '' from the film Thalapathi ( 1991 ) for her song `` Bamboo Banga '' on the album Kala ( 2007 ). Also, Gonjasufi sampled `` Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza '' from the movie Sadma. Live performances Ilaiyaraaja rarely performs his music live. His last major live performance, the first in 25 years, 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. On 23 October 2005, `` A Time For Heroes '', sponsored by different agencies including the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, saw Hollywood star Richard Gere, Tamil and Telugu stars converging on the city for an evening of `` infotainment '' - they spoke in one voice on HIV / AIDS. The event organized at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad, on Saturday, 22 October 2005, took off with Maestro Ilaiyaraaja 's composition rendered by singer Usha Uthup. 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 23 September 2012, he performed live in Bangalore at National High School Grounds. On February 16, 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 February 23, 2013 and at the HP Pavilion at San Jose on March 1, 2013. After his North America tour he made a live performance at The O2 Arena in London on August 24, 2013, along with Kamal Haasan and his sons Yuvan Shankar Raja and Karthik Raja. Ilaiaraaja and his team performed live again in North America in 2016. They performed at places like San Jose, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta and New Jersey. Copyrights controversy In 2017, Ilaiyaraaja filed a suite in court for copyrights of his songs. He sent legal notices to SP. Balasubramaniam and Chitra prohibiting them to sing his compositions. He claims to have filed legal notices in 2015 to various music companies who produced his records. Ilaiyaraaja Discography Main article : Ilaiyaraaja discography A Graphical Representation of Ilaiyaraaja 's Discography Over the Years with Colours to Represent Languages, Done Through Web - Scraping Using Python. Ilaiyaraaja 1970s Ilaiyaraaja 1980s Ilaiyaraaja 1990s Ilaiyaraaja 2000s Ilaiyaraaja 2010s New / Non-Film See also List of songs recorded by Ilaiyaraaja List of awards and nominations received by Ilaiyaraaja References Jump up ^ Baskaran, Sundararaj Theodore ( 1 January 2009 ). History through the lens : perspectives on South Indian cinema. Orient Blackswan. p. 82. ISBN 978 - 81 - 250 - 3520 - 6. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2013. Jump up ^ Emmanuel Anthony Das ( 1 September 2010 ). The Best is Yet to Be. Pustak Mahal. p. 7. ISBN 978 - 81 - 223 - 1144 - 0. Archived from the original on 21 June 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2012. ^ Jump up to : S. 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Jump up ^ 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. Jump up ^ Sivanarayanan, A. 2004. Translating Tamil Dalit poetry. World Literature Today 78 ( 2 ) : 56 -- 58. Jump up ^ Baskaran, S.T. `` Music for the people ''. Archived 4 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine. The Hindu. 6 January 2002. Accessed 2006 - 11 - 15. ^ Jump up to : 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 ). ^ Jump up to : 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 ). 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Volume V : South Asia -- The Indian Subcontinent. New York : Garland Pub. ( pp. 544 -- 545 ). Jump up ^ Oriental Records. Undated. Nothing But Wind Archived 6 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine... Accessed 2006 - 11 - 19. Jump up ^ Viswanathan, S. 2005. A cultural crossover Archived 7 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine... Frontline 22 ( 15 ), 16 July -- 29. Accessed 2006 - 10 - 13. Jump up ^ Parthasarathy, D. 2004. Thiruvasagam in ' classical crossover ' Archived 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine... The Hindu, Friday, 26 November. Accessed 2007 - 03 - 01. Jump up ^ Soman, S. 2006. ' The Music Messiah ' Archived 5 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine... The Hindu, Saturday, 30 December. Accessed 2007 - 02 - 27. Jump up ^ BBC World Service. 2002. BBC World Service 70th Anniversary Global Music Poll : The World 's Top Ten Archived 30 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine... Accessed 2006 - 10 - 13. Jump up ^ TIME Magazine. 2005. 23220, nayakan, 00. html All - TIME 100 Movies. Accessed 2006 - 10 - 13. Jump up ^ Loewenstein, L. 2001. Hey Ram ( review ). `` Variety '', 29 January. 381 ( 10 ) : 60. Jump up ^ Press Information Bureau of the Government of India. 2003. Feature film : Nizhalkkuthu ( https://web.archive.org/web/20071016124903/http://pib.nic.in/archieve/iffi/iffi2003/nizhalkkuthu.html Archived 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine... Accessed 2006 - 11 - 17. Jump up ^ Dongre, A. and Malik, R. 1997. A day in the life of India Archived 9 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine... Hinduism Today, February. Accessed 2006 - 11 - 19. Jump up ^ Mehar, R. 2007. Hip - hopping around the world Archived 16 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine... The Hindu, 17 October. Accessed 2008 - 03 - 14. Jump up ^ Rangarajan, M. `` The Raja still reigns supreme ''. Archived 10 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine. The Hindu. 21 October 2005. Accessed 2006 - 10 - 13. Jump up ^ Van Ryssen, S. `` Ilaiyaraaja 's Musical Journey ''. Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Leonardo Digital Review. December 2005. Accessed 2007 - 03 - 07. Jump up ^ `` Ithu Ilaiyaraja ''. Archived 1 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine. The Hindu. 1 July 2005. Accessed 2006 - 10 - 13. Jump up ^ Trinity Events ( 2 ) Archived 1 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 2013 - 2 - 24 Jump up ^ `` Archived copy ''. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 2013 - 12 - 13. accessed on 13 / 12 / 2013 Jump up ^ http://events.sulekha.com/ilaiyaraaja_tickets_artist_95 Jump up ^ http://www.hindustantimes.com/music/illayaraja-s-legal-notice-to-spb-sp-balasubrahmanyam-says-he-will-obey-the-law/story-hulhkHFbDsrOBOu3kiu1EN.html http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/Bring-on-the-music/article17201325.ece Further reading Prem - Ramesh. 1998 Ilaiyaraja : Isaiyin Thathuvamum Alagiyalum ( trans. : Ilaiyaraja : The Philosophy and Aesthetics of Music ). Chennai : Sembulam. Ilaiyaraaja. 1998 Vettaveli Thanil Kotti Kidakkuthu ( trans. : My Spiritual Experiences ) ( 3rd ed. ). Chennai : Kalaignan Pathipagam. → A collection of poems by Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja. 1998 Vazhithunai. Chennai : Saral Veliyeedu. Ilaiyaraaja. 1999 Sangeetha Kanavugal ( trans. : Musical Dreams ) ( 2nd ed. ). Chennai : Kalaignan Pathipagam. → An autobiography about Ilaiyaraaja 's European tour and other musings. Ilaiyaraaja. 2000 Ilaiyaraajavin Sinthanaigal ( trans. : Ilaiyaraaja 's Thoughts ). Chennai : Thiruvasu Puthaka Nilayam. Srinivasan, Pavithra ( 2010 - 09 - 20 ). `` Making Music, Raja - style ''. Rediff.com. Retrieved 2010 - 10 - 15. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ilaiyaraaja. Ilaiyaraaja on IMDb Ilayaraja Hits - Full Video Songs Collections Ilaiyaraaja - Official Website Ilayaraja Live Concert 2016 in US Padma Bhushan award recipients ( 2010 -- 19 ) Satya Paul Agarwal Mohammad Amin Sailesh Kumar Bandopadhyay M.S. Banga Anil Bordia Bipan Chandra B.K. Chaturvedi Sant Singh Chatwal G.P. Chopra Tan Chung Madhusudan Dhaky P.R. Dubhashi Puttaraj Gawai Belle Monappa Hegde Ilaiyaraaja Jagdish Chandra Kapur Shrinivas Khale Aamir Khan Sultan Khan Ram Kumar Kumudini Lakhia Kuzhur Narayana Marar Chhannulal Mishra Eledath Thaikkattu Narayanan Mooss C.P. Krishnan Nair S.P. Oswal Akbar Padamsee Ramakanta Panda Balasaheb Vikhe Patil Arogyaswami Paulraj A.R. Rahman Moosa Raza Mallika Sarabhai Nookala Chinna Satyanarayana Abhijit Sen Satya Vrat Shastri Noshir M. Shroff Kushal Pal Singh Bikash Sinha Balagangadharanatha Swamiji Narayanan Vaghul P.K. Warrier Fareed Zakaria 2011 S.P. Balasubrahmanyam Rajashree Birla M.N. Buch C.V. Chandrasekhar Ajai Chowdhry Yogesh Chander Deveshwar Satyadev Dubey T.J.S. George Shankha Ghosh Kris Gopalakrishnan Keki Byramjee Grant Shashi Kapoor Krishen Khanna Khayyam Chanda Kochhar Dwijen Mukhopadhyay Madavoor Vasudevan Nair Ramdas Pai Dashrath Patel Rajendra Singh Pawar Suryanarayanan Ramachandran Shobhana Ranade Gunupati Venkata Krishna Reddy Kallam Anji Reddy Waheeda Rehman Shyam Saran Analjit Singh Arpita Singh Surendra Singh R.K. Srikantan Raghavan Thirumulpad 2012 Suresh H. Advani Shabana Azmi Homi K. Bhabha Shashikumar Chitre Khaled Choudhury Jatin Das Vidya Dehejia Dharmendra S.N. Goenka M.S. Gopalakrishnan T.V. Gopalakrishnan Buddhadev Das Gupta Sunil Janah Anish Kapoor S.B. Mujumdar B. Muthuraman Mira Nair Arvind Panagariya José Pereira Mata Prasad M.S. Raghunathan P. Chandrasekhara Rao Ronen Sen Devi Shetty M.V. Subbiah N. Vittal N.H. Wadia George Yeo 2013 Satya N. Atluri Maharaj Kishan Bhan Jaspal Bhatti Rahul Dravid Adi Godrej S. Janaki Abdul Rashid Khan Rajesh Khanna Mary Kom Nandkishore Shamrao Laud Mangesh Padgaonkar Hemendra Singh Panwar Jogesh Pati Shivajirao Girdhar Patil A. Sivathanu Pillai D. Ramanaidu Kanak Rele V.K. Saraswat Ashoke Sen Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak B.N. Suresh Sharmila Tagore Ramamurthy Thyagarajan Saroja Vaidyanathan 2014 Anisuzzaman Mrityunjay Athreya Padmanabhan Balaram Dalveer Bhandari Ruskin Bond Anita Desai Pullela Gopichand Kamal Haasan Jyeshtharaj Joshi V.N. Kaul Neelam Kler M. Mahadevappa Leander Paes K. Radhakrishnan Anumolu Ramakrishna Thirumalachari Ramasami Lloyd Rudolph Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Vinod Prakash Sharma Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh Parveen Sultana Dhirubhai Thaker Vairamuthu J.S. Verma T.H. Vinayakram 2015 Jahnu Barua Manjul Bhargava Vijay P. Bhatkar Swapan Dasgupta David Frawley Bill Gates Melinda Gates Swami Satyamitranand N. Gopalaswami Subhash C. Kashyap Gokulotsavji Maharaj Saichiro Misumi Ambrish Mithal Sudha Ragunathan Harish Salve Ashok Seth Rajat Sharma Satpal Singh Shivakumara Swami Khadg Singh Valdiya 2016 Ravindra Chandra Bhargava Robert Blackwill Hafeez Contractor Indu Jain Heisnam Kanhailal Anupam Kher Sania Mirza Pallonji Mistry Udit Narayan Saina Nehwal Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad Vinod Rai N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya A.V. Rama Rao D. Nageshwar Reddy Dayananda Saraswati Barjinder Singh Hamdard Ram V. Sutar Tejomayananda 2017 Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Deviprasad Dwivedi Ratnasundarsuri Niranjanananda Saraswati Cho Ramaswamy Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Tehemton Erach Udwadia # Posthumous conferral 1954 -- 1959 1960 -- 1969 1970 -- 1979 1980 -- 1989 1990 -- 1999 2000 -- 2009 2010 -- 2019 Filmfare Award for Best Music Director -- Tamil 1991 - 2000 Ilaiyaraaja ( 1991 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1992 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1993 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1994 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1995 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1996 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1997 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1998 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1999 ) A.R. Rahman ( 2000 ) 2001 - present Harris Jayaraj ( 2001 ) Bharathwaj ( 2002 ) Harris Jayaraj ( 2003 ) Bharathwaj & Yuvan Shankar Raja ( 2004 ) Harris Jayaraj ( 2005 ) A.R. Rahman ( 2006 ) A.R. Rahman ( 2007 ) Harris Jayaraj ( 2008 ) Harris Jayaraj ( 2009 ) 2010 - present A.R. Rahman ( 2010 ) G.V. Prakash Kumar ( 2011 ) D. Imman ( 2012 ) A.R. Rahman ( 2013 ) Anirudh Ravichander ( 2014 ) A.R. Rahman ( 2015 ) National Film Award for Best Music Direction 1967 -- 1980 K.V. Mahadevan ( 1967 ) Kalyanji Anandji ( 1968 ) S. Mohinder ( 1969 ) Madan Mohan ( 1970 ) Jaidev ( 1971 ) S.D. Burman ( 1972 ) Satyajit Ray ( 1973 ) Ananda Shankar ( 1974 ) Bhupen Hazarika ( 1975 ) B.V. Karanth ( 1976 ) B.V. Karanth ( 1977 ) Jaidev ( 1978 ) K.V. Mahadevan ( 1979 ) Satyajit Ray ( 1980 ) 1981 -- 2000 Khayyam ( 1981 ) Ramesh Naidu ( 1982 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1983 ) Jaidev ( 1984 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1985 ) M. Balamuralikrishna ( 1986 ) Vanraj Bhatia ( 1987 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1988 ) Sher Chowdhary ( 1989 ) Hridaynath Mangeshkar ( 1990 ) Rajat Dholakia ( 1991 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1992 ) Johnson ( 1993 ) Ravi and Johnson ( 1994 ) Hamsalekha ( 1995 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1996 ) M.M. Keeravani ( 1997 ) Vishal Bhardwaj ( 1998 ) Ismail Darbar ( 1999 ) Anu Malik ( 2000 ) 2001 -- 2008 A.R. Rahman ( 2001 ) A.R. Rahman ( 2002 ) Shankar -- Ehsaan -- Loy ( 2003 ) Vidyasagar ( 2004 ) Lalgudi Jayaraman ( 2005 ) Ashok Patki ( 2006 ) Ouseppachan ( 2007 ) Ajay − Atul ( 2008 ) 2009 - Present Songs Amit Trivedi ( 2009 ) Vishal Bhardwaj ( 2010 ) Neel Dutt ( 2011 ) Shailendra Barve ( 2012 ) Kabir Suman ( 2013 ) Vishal Bhardwaj ( 2014 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2015 ) Bapu Padmanabha ( 2016 ) Background score Ilaiyaraaja ( 2009 ) Isaac Thomas Kottukapally ( 2010 ) Mayookh Bhaumik ( 2011 ) Bijibal ( 2012 ) Shantanu Moitra ( 2013 ) Gopi Sundar ( 2014 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 2015 ) Bapu Padmanabha ( 2016 ) Kerala State Film Award for Best Music Director 1969 -- 1980 G. Devarajan ( 1969 ) G. Devarajan ( 1970 ) V. Dakshinamoorthy ( 1971 ) G. Devarajan ( 1972 ) K. Raghavan M.B. Sreenivasan ( 1973 ) M.S. Viswanathan ( 1974 ) Bhaskar Chendra Varker ( 1975 ) A.T. Ummer ( 1976 ) K. Raghavan ( 1977 ) M.B. Sreenivasan ( 1978 ) None ( 1979 ) Jerry Amaldev ( 1980 ) 1981 -- 2000 M.B. Sreenivasan ( 1981 ) Johnson ( 1982 ) Shyam ( 1983 ) Shyam ( 1984 ) G. Devarajan ( 1985 ) Bombay Ravi ( 1986 ) Ouseppachan ( 1987 ) G. Aravindan ( 1988 ) Johnson ( 1989 ) Perumbavoor G. Raveendranath Jerry Amaldev ( 1990 ) Raveendran ( 1991 ) Bombay Ravi ( 1992 ) S.P. Venkatesh ( 1993 ) Berny - Ignatius ( 1994 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1995 ) Vidyasagar ( 1996 ) Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri ( 1997 ) Vidyasagar ( 1998 ) Sunny Stephen ( 1999 ) Vidyasagar ( 2000 ) 2001 -- present M.G. Radhakrishnan ( 2001 ) Raveendran ( 2002 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2003 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2004 ) M.G. Radhakrishnan ( 2005 ) Ramesh Narayan ( 2006 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2007 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2008 ) Mohan Sithara ( 2009 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2010 ) Sharreth ( 2011 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2012 ) Ouseppachan ( 2013 ) Ramesh Narayan ( 2014 ) Ramesh Narayan ( 2015 ) M. Jayachandran ( 2016 ) Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director 1968 - 1980 M.S. Viswanathan ( 1968 ) K.V. Mahadevan ( 1969 ) Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan ( 1970 ) Not awarded ( 1971 ) Not awarded ( 1972 ) Not awarded ( 1973 ) Not awarded ( 1974 ) Not awarded ( 1975 ) Not awarded ( 1976 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1977 ) M.S. Viswanathan ( 1978 ) Shankar Ganesh ( 1979 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1980 ) 1981 - 2000 Ilaiyaraaja ( 1981 ) M.S. Viswanathan ( 1982 ) Not awarded ( 1983 ) Not awarded ( 1984 ) Not awarded ( 1985 ) Not awarded ( 1986 ) Not awarded ( 1987 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1988 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1989 ) Deva ( 1990 ) M.M. Keeravani ( 1991 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1992 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1993 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1994 ) Deva ( 1995 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1996 ) S.A. Rajkumar ( 1997 ) Bobby ( 1998 ) A.R. Rahman ( 1999 ) Deva ( 2000 ) 2001 - present Vidyasagar ( 2001 ) Sirpy ( 2002 ) Harris Jayaraj ( 2003 ) Srikanth Deva ( 2004 ) Harris Jayaraj ( 2005 ) Yuvan Shankar Raja ( 2006 ) Vidyasagar ( 2007 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 2008 ) Sundar C. Babu ( 2009 ) Yuvan Shankar Raja ( 2010 ) Harris Jayaraj ( 2011 ) D. Imman ( 2012 ) Ramesh Vinayakam ( 2013 ) A.R. Rahman ( 2014 ) Filmfare Award South for Lifetime Achievement 1983 -- 1989 S.P. Balasubrahmanyam ( 1983 ) Sowcar Janaki ( 1984 ) Sivaji Ganesan ( 1985 ) Thikkurissy Sukumaran Nair ( 1986 ) Bhanumathi Ramakrishna ( 1987 ) Akkineni Nageswara Rao ( 1988 ) Ilaiyaraaja ( 1989 ) 1990 -- 1999 Padmini ( 1990 ) M.T. Vasudevan Nair ( 1991 ) L.V. Prasad ( 1992 ) Gemini Ganesan ( 1993 ) K. Balachander, Kasinathuni Viswanath, B. Saroja Devi, Madhu, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee ( 1994 ) Nagesh & Manorama ( 1995 ) Krishna & Sharada ( 1996 ) Nedumudi Venu & S. Janaki ( 1997 ) Allu Rama Lingaiah & Lakshmi ( 1998 ) Pandari Bai & Mugur Sundar ( 1999 ) D. Ramanaidu & Sheela ( 2000 ) 2001 -- 2010 M.S. Viswanathan & Dasari Narayana Rao ( 2001 ) Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao & Vishnuvardhan ( 2002 ) K.J. Yesudas & Vijayashanti ( 2003 ) K.R. Vijaya & Ramoji Rao ( 2004 ) Thilakan & Sukumari ( 2005 ) Krishnam Raju & P. Susheela ( 2006 ) Sivakumar & Jaya Prada ( 2007 ) Veturi Sundararama Murthy ( 2008 ) Ambareesh & KPAC Lalitha ( 2009 ) Chiranjeevi & Jayasudha ( 2010 ) 2011 -- present S.P. Muthuraman & Seema ( 2011 ) Bapu & Vani Jairam ( 2012 ) Balu Mahendra & Jayabharathi ( 2013 ) I.V. Sasi & Raadhika ( 2014 ) Mohan Babu ( 2015 ) Vijaya Nirmala ( 2016 ) VIAF : 28473981 LCCN : n84109004 ISNI : 0000 0001 1489 2706 SUDOC : 134269616 BNF : cb155055605 ( data ) MusicBrainz : 34394522 - a0f0 - 4675 - aad2 - 30ac3cb3d7d3 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ilaiyaraaja&oldid=812328877 '' Categories : Best Music Direction National Film Award winners Ilaiyaraaja Living people Indian film score composers Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Tamil playback singers Tamil film score composers Tamil musicians 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 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 film singers Indian male musicians Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Good articles Articles with hCards Pages using Template : Infobox musical artist with unknown parameters Use dmy dates from February 2012 Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Español فارسی Français Galego ગુજરાતી हिन्दी ಕನ್ನಡ മലയാളം मराठी Bahasa Melayu संस्कृतम् Simple English தமிழ் తెలుగు اردو Edit links This page was last edited on 27 November 2017, at 07 : 15. 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Question: first asian to compose a symphony for royal philharmonic orchestra of london
Answer: Ilaiyaraaja