Ilaiyaraaja

Ilaiyaraaja is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominantly in Tamil in addition to Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. Regarded as one of the most prolific composers, in a career spanning over forty-nine years, he has composed over 6500 songs, provided film scores for nearly 1500 feature films in nine languages, and performed in over 20,000 concerts. He was one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music. He is nicknamed "Isaignani" and is often referred to as "Maestro", the title conferred to him by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.