Ilaiyaraaja

Ilaiyaraaja (born Gnanadesikan (Daniel Rasaiah as in school records) on 2 June 1943) is an Indian film composer, singer, and lyricist, mainly in Tamil film Industry and other Indian film industries like Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Marathi. He is regarded as one of the finest music composers in India [citation needed] . Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor, singer, and a songwriter. 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 remains one of the most popular composers to have emerged from India. Ilaiyaraaja has been a prominent composer of film music in South Indian cinema since the late 1970s. His works are mainly in Tamil, but has also scored music for numerous films in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and one in Marathi. He integrated folk lyricism (in Tamil) and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream.

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