Abdul Khaliq, born as Yuvan Shankar Raja is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer and singer-songwriter. He mainly scores music for Tamil films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use of Western music elements and often credited with having introduced hip hop to the Tamil film and music industry and started the "era of remixes" in Tamil Nadu. Yuvan has won two Filmfare Awards, five Mirchi Music Awards, four Vijay Awards and three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Devanesan Chokkalingam, popularly known as Deva, is an Indian film composer and singer who predominantly works in Tamil Cinema. He has composed songs and provided background music for Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films in a career spanning about 20 years. Many know his gaana songs, written mostly using Madras Tamil, though he has gained notoriety for plagiarising others' songs. He has composed music for more than 400 films.
Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan, also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as Mellisai Mannar. He composed songs for more than 800 Indian films and various albums. across languages primarily in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. He has also acted and sung in a few Tamil films. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa conferred the Thirai Isai Chakravarthy title on him in August 2012 and presented him with 60 gold coins and a new car.
Autograph is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Cheran. The film's soundtrack is composed by Bharathwaj. Cheran also plays the lead role in his film for first time, and other cast members include Gopika, Sneha, and Mallika.
Sillunu Oru Kaadhal is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by N. Krishna. It starred Suriya, Jyothika and Bhumika in pivotal roles, while Shriya Sharma, Sukanya, Vadivelu and Santhanam played other pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by the Indian poet Vaali; cinematography for the film was handled by R. D. Rajasekhar and editing was handled by Anthony. The film was released on 8 September 2006, three days before the wedding of Suriya and Jyothika. Bhumika Chawla made her comeback in Tamil cinema after 5 years in this movie. The film was first titled as Jillunu Oru Kadhal, and it is then changed to Sillunu Oru Kadhal to have a pure-tamil name. This movie is considered to be a best example of arranged marriage ending in unconditional love.
Vairamuthu Ramasamy is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first worked as a translator, while also being a published poet. He entered the Tamil film industry in the year 1980, with the film Nizhalgal, an Ilaiyaraaja musical, directed by Bharathiraja. During the course of his 40-year film career, he has written over 7,500 songs and poems which have won him seven National Awards, the most for any Indian lyricist. He has also been honored with a Padma Shri, a Padma Bhushan and a Sahitya Akademi Award, for his abundant literary output.
Harris Jayaraj is an Indian composer from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is best known for his melodies. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Telugu and two films in Hindi. He is one of the best composers in the Tamil film industry.
Unni Menon is an Indian film playback singer. He has sung over 4000 songs in Indian languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. In the early part of his career, he spent many years as a low-profile playback singer. The turning point in his career came when he sang the song "Pudhu Vellai Mazhai" from Mani Ratnam's award-winning 1992 Tamil film Roja, composed by A. R. Rahman. He has frequently associated with A. R. Rahman, lending his voice to nearly 27 popular songs from films like Karuththamma (1994) and Minsaara Kanavu (1997).
Sistla Janaki is an Indian playback singer and occasional music-composer from Andhra Pradesh. She is referred to respectfully as "Janaki Amma" and Nightingale of South India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in India. She is referred to as 'Isaikkuyil' in Tamilnadu and ‘Gaana Kogile’ in Karnataka. She has recorded over 48,000 songs in films, albums, TV and Radio including solos, duets and chorus songs in 20 languages including Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi,Sanskrit, Odia, Bengali, Marathi, Tulu, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Konkani, Assamese, Sindhi and also in languages such as English, Japanese, Arabic, German, and Sinhala, however the highest number of songs in her career were in Kannada, followed by Malayalam. Starting in 1957 with the Tamil film Vidhiyin Vilayattu, her career has spanned over six decades.
Vani Jairam, also credited as Vani Jayaram, is an Indian singer. She is best known as a playback singer in South Indian cinema. Vani's career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades. She has done playback for over thousand Indian movies recording over 20,000 songs. In addition, she has recorded thousands of devotionals and private albums and also participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad.
Kaadhal Mannan is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by Saran, which stars Ajith Kumar and Maanu. The film also saw music composer M. S. Viswanathan make his debut in a supporting role, whilst Vivek, Karan and Girish Karnad also played other roles. The film was released on 6 March 1998 to positive reviews and commercial success at the box office.
K. V. Saravanan, better known as Sarann, is an Indian film director active mainly in Tamil cinema. He was once an assistant to K. Balachander. He owns production houses called Gemini Productions and Saran movie factory.
Vineeth Radhakrishnan is an Indian actor, classical dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also starred in a few Kannada and Bollywood films. He has won several awards including 2 Kerala State Film Awards, Kalaimamani from Government of Tamil Nadu and Filmfare Award South.
Vasudevan, known as Malaysia Vasudevan, was a Malaysian-Indian playback singer and actor in Tamil cinema.
Suresh Peters is a multi talented artist in the field of Indian music. He is a music producer, a professional drummer, an award winning music director in five Indian languages and a playback singer in multiple Indian languages for feature films in India.
Thangar Bachan is an Indian film director and actor, cinematographer and novelist. He has served as jury member in National Film Awards.
Srinivasan Doraiswamy, known by his stage name Srinivas, is an Indian Playback Singer who has sung over 2000 songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. He has also worked independently as a music composer, working on films and private albums.
Rajhesh Vaidhya, is an Indian veena player born on 14 June 1973 hailing from Tamil Nadu. Besides performing on stage, he has worked with various film music composers. He also acted in the movie Viswa Thulasi and in Premi, a tele-serial aired in Sun TV. Vaidhya was a winner of the 2010 Kalaimamani award for his veena playing.
Yugabharathi is an Tamil poet, music director, and lyricist. His birth name was "Santhanam Desan" and he was known as "Santhanam" by his family and friends. During the early 1990s when he began writing poems for magazines he started using the pen name "Yugabharathi" in honour of the great Tamil poet Subramanya Bharathi, commonly known as Mahakavi Bharithiyar.
Gemini is the soundtrack album for the 2002 Tamil film of the same name directed by Saran and features music composed by Bharathwaj with lyrics by Vairamuthu. Since making his entry into Tamil films with Saran's directorial debut Kaadhal Mannan, he has scored the music for most films directed by Saran. The album features seven tracks; five songs and two alternate versions of the song. An eighth track; the alternate version of the song "O Podu" released, post the film's release. The songs were well received by the audience and the track "O Podu", in particular, was a hit. The soundtrack fetched two Filmfare Awards and two Cinema Express Awards. Bharadwaj earned his first Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, along with Anuradha Sriram who received Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil. At the inaugural ceremony of International Tamil Film Awards held in Malaysia, Anuradha Sriram received ITFA Award for Best Female Playback Singer.
