Ilayaraja goes international 

Music maestro Ilayaraja, who has worked on over 1,000 Indian films in his illustrious career spanning over four decades, will be making his English debut with cross-cultural romantic drama "Love and Love Onlya. He has composed 21 tracks for the self-funded debut production of Indian-Australian filmmaker Julian Karikalan.

"Anyone who has grown up listening to Raja sir's music, wouldn't miss an opportunity to work with him," Julian told. When stumbled upon a video link where Ilayaraja expressed his interest to work with deserving newcomers, Julian decided to approach him.

Given the budget of the film, was he sure he could afford the legendary composer? "The kind of budget on which I started my film, he was definitely not affordable. But I decided to increase my budget, if he would agree to come on board. Thankfully, it was needed as Raja sir was aware of the shoestring budget of the film and agreed to charge very less," he said.

Asked what excited the maestro the most about his project, Julian said, "He told me there wasn't any special reason, but he liked my filmmaking style and my distribution approach. I don't plan to release the film in cinemas but instead plan to explore the VHX and Amazon's video-on-demand platform."