Are You A True Blue Ilaiyaraaja Fan?

Music is a sea and there are several hidden gems there. But there are few which shine bright. One of them is music maestro Ilaiyaraaja.When an ilaiyaraaja song is playing, the entire audience listens in rapt attention. And this is true of not only his fans but his critics too. Such is the power of his music.

This genius of a musician turns a year older today and we thought why not share some interesting stuff about the singer-composer.

Do you know what is the singer's real name? What not ilaiyaraaja? No. What if we told you that the music composer's birth name was Gnanadesikan? Apparently, the singer's name given to school was Rajaiya but again changed to Ilaiyaraaja before his debut movie.

Ilaiyaraaja was assistant to Kannada mysic director GK Venkatesh. The musical genius who started off at an early age of 14 worked in several Kannada films before he started off on his own.

Okay, so Ilaiyaraaja has composed music for what over 1000 movies? I mean we have lost count now. He has worked in movies of several Kollywood superstars including the likes of Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.

Do you know that once when Bollywood shahehnshah Amitabh Bachchan was asked to record a number for Paa, he was unnerved to do so in the presence of the musical maestro.

Ilaiyaraaja was the first Asian to conduct a full-fledged symphony of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra thus taking Indian music to the world. Later of course, AR Rahman followed suit.