பல கோடி ரசிகர்களின் இதயம் கவர்ந்த காதல் பாடல்கள்| Tamil Love Melody Songs | Tamil Cinema Songs||Ilaiyaraaja PVB (born 2 June 1943 as Gnanathesikan) is an Indian film composer who works in the South Indian cinema, predominantly in Tamil since the mid 1970s. Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor, singer and songwriter. He has composed more than 6500 songs and provided film scores for more than 1000 films.[1][2][3]

Singers S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra and S. Janaki have sung most of their greatest hits in his music. He integrated folk with western classical music in Tamil cinema and introduced western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream. Ilaiyaraja is also known for creating music by fusing symphonic orchestration with traditional Indian instrumentation, often performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. In 1993, he organised a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and thus became the First Indian to compose a full symphony,[4] with Ravi Shankar being the only other Indian to do so. He is also the first Asian to compose a full symphony performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.[5] He has won five Indian National Film Awards (the highest film honor in India); three for Best Music Direction and two for Best Background Score.[6] In 2010 he has received the Padma Bhushan, awarded by the Government of India and in 2018 he was presented the Padma Vibhushan award which is the second-highest civilian award of the Republic of India.[7][8]

In the 2000s, he composed a variety of non-film music, including religious and devotional songs, an oratorio and world music. He is usually referred as Isaignani (Musical Genius), or as the Maestro.[9] Ilaiyaraja is a gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London. In 2003, according to an international poll conducted by BBC, more than half-a million people from 165 countries voted his composition Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu from the 1991 film Thalapathi as the fourth in the world's top 10 most popular songs of all time.[10] He was also nominated in the Best Indian album Music Awards category[11] at US based Just Plain Folks Music Organization, which is the largest grassroots music organization in the world, and stood third for his "Music Journey: Live in Italy".[11] In 2012, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his creative and experimental works in the music field.[12] In 2014, he has been chosen for his outstanding contribution to the Indian film music and was awarded the SIES Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati National Eminence award.[13][14] In 2015, he was also honoured with the Centenary Award for lifetime achievement at the 46th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Panaji, Goa.[15] On December 31, 2015, he was nominated by the Kerala Government for Nishagandi Puraskaram, the top award conferred by the Kerala Government's Tourism Ministry, for his artistic excellence and contributions to the Indian film industry.[16]

Popular world cinema portal "Taste of Cinema" placed Ilaiyaraja at the 9th position in its list of 25 greatest film composers in cinema history, thus becoming the only Indian to feature in that list.[17] In a poll conducted by CNN-IBN celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema in 2013, Ilaiyaraaja was voted as the greatest music composer of India with a maximum of 49%.[18]