Ilaiyaraaja was born as Gnanadesikan in Pannaipuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu,
India, but when he joined the school his father changed his name as
"Rajaiya" but his village people used to call him as "Raasayya".
Ilaiyaraaja joined Dhanraj Master as a student to learn musical
instruments and the master renamed and called him as just "Raaja". In his first movie Annakili, Tamil film producer Panchu Arunachalam added "Ilaiya" (Ilaiya means younger in Tamil language) as prefix in his name Raaja and he named as "Ilaiyaraaja" because in 1970's there was one more music director A. M. Rajah who was a popular one.Ilaiyaraaja is a devout "Hindu" by practice and live a very pious life.
Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva and the couple have 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 Tamil film industry.He has two sisters Kamalammal and Padmavathi. Padmavathi is the writer of the book Life Of Music(about his life story)
To date, he has composed over 4500 songs and provided film scores for more than 950 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years,particularly being acclaimed for his background scoring for Indian films. His songs and background score played a very crucial role in the success of many films.He integrated folk lyricism (in Tamil) and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. A gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, in 1993, he is said to the first Asian to compose a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London's Walthamstow Town Hall, which is not released yet. In 2003, according to a BBC international poll, people from 155 countries voted his composition "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 film Thalapathi 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".
Ilaiyaraaja was married to Jeeva and the couple have 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 Tamil film industry.He has two sisters Kamalammal and Padmavathi. Padmavathi is the writer of the book Life Of Music(about his life story)
To date, he has composed over 4500 songs and provided film scores for more than 950 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years,particularly being acclaimed for his background scoring for Indian films. His songs and background score played a very crucial role in the success of many films.He integrated folk lyricism (in Tamil) and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. A gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, in 1993, he is said to the first Asian to compose a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London's Walthamstow Town Hall, which is not released yet. In 2003, according to a BBC international poll, people from 155 countries voted his composition "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" from the 1991 film Thalapathi 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".
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