Ilaiayaraja

Maestro Ilaiyaraja(b1943) has been South India's most prolific composer, composing for over 700 films in total in a long spanning career of over 20 years.

Winner of three Indian national awards for Saagara Sangamam (Telugu), Rudra Veena[?] and Sindhu Bhairavi[?] (Tamil).

Ilaiyaraja has been very instrumental in bringing fresh energies into the stagnating Indian film music of 1908s. He successfully managed to craft his own style of composition, drawing good elements from Indian Classical, Western Classical, Pop, Jazz and Indian folk music traditions.

Ilaiyaraja has also conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

His best albums include How to name it ?[?] and Nothing but the wind[?].

Although, Ilaiyaraja was extremely good at creating such confluences, he had to face the wrath of 'purists' for distorting Tyagaraja's compositions.