Allah Rakha Rahman also known by the initialism ARR is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in international cinema. He is a recipient of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, fifteen Filmfare Awards, and eighteen Filmfare Awards South. In 2010, the Government of India conferred him with the Padma Bhushan, the nation's third-highest civilian award.
Yuvan Shankar Raja, rechristened post religious conversion as Abdul Haliq is an Indian composer and playback singer, who continues to use his birth name professionally. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi 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 which included mixed EDM and jazz. He is frequently referred to as the "BGM King" and the "Young Maestro" of Tamil Film Music. Yuvan has won two Filmfare Awards South, five Mirchi Music Awards South, three Vijay Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Karthik Raja is an Indian composer and playback singer based in Chennai. He made his debut as a film composer in the tamil film Pandiyan (1992) and went on to score music for many critically and commercially acclaimed feature films.
Iruvar is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language epic political drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Mani Ratnam. The film, inspired by the lives of M. G. Ramachandran, M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa, is set against the backdrop of cinema and politics in Tamil Nadu. It stars an ensemble cast including Mohanlal, Prakash Raj, Aishwarya Rai, Revathi, Gautami, Tabu, and Nassar. Rai, who was crowned Miss World 1994, made her first screen appearance, playing dual characters.
Alai Payuthey, also spelt Alaipayuthey, is a 2000 Indian Tamil-language romantic musical film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mani Ratnam, starring R. Madhavan and Shalini. The film explores the tensions of married life between two young people who elope and the maturing of love among urban Indians who are conflicted between tradition and modernity. The score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman.
Kannathil Muthamittal is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language musical war film written, produced and directed by Mani Ratnam. It was based on a short story, "Amuthavum Avanum" by Sujatha. The film stars R. Madhavan, Simran and P. S. Keerthana with Nandita Das, J. D. Chakravarthy, Prakash Raj and Pasupathy portraying other pivotal characters. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ravi K. Chandran handled the cinematography. Mani Ratnam presents the story of a child of Sri Lankan Tamil parentage adopted by Indian parents, whose desire is to meet her biological mother in the midst of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It was released on 14 February 2002.
Karthik is an Indian playback singer and composer. Karthik started his professional singing career as a backing vocalist and has since been working as a playback singer. He has sung more than 8000 songs in 10 Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia, Bengali, Marathi and Hindi.
Ilaiyaraaja is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil, in addition to Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films. Regarded as one of the most prolific composers, in a career spanning over forty-eight years, he has composed over 7,000 songs and provided film scores for over 1,000 films, apart from performing in over 20,000 concerts. He is nicknamed "Isaignani" and is often referred to as "Maestro", the title conferred to him by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.
Anandan "Drums" Sivamani is an Indian percussionist. He plays many instruments including drums, octoban, darbuka, udukai, ghatam and kanjira. He performed drumming during the Indian Premier League in 2008 and 2010. He is affiliated with the Chennai Super Kings team, but gained recognition through his role as A. R. Rahman's lead percussionist. They have been close friends since childhood. In 2019, he was conferred with Padma Shri.
Vijay Prakash is an Indian Playback singer and also a Music director from Karnataka. He has given his voice for predominantly Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu language films, in addition to Hindi, Malayalam and Marathi language films. He has also performed shows with Zakir Hussain. Prakash won the Karnataka Government's 'Best Playback Singer' award for the year 2016 for the song "Nammooralli Chaligaladalli" from the film Beautiful Manasugalu.
Airtel Super Singer 2, the second season of the music competition reality show Airtel Super Singer, premiered on 7 July 2008. Episodes were telecasted on Star Vijay between Monday and Wednesday. Judges for the show were Sujatha Mohan, P. Unnikrishnan and Srinivas. Chinmayi was the host of the show until January 2009 and was followed by Malini Yugendran and Yugendran Vasudevan Nair. The voice trainer was Ananth Vaidyanathan.
Shalini Singh, popularly called as Pop Shalini, is a singer from Tamil Nadu, India. Born in 1984, she is a singer, performer, blogger, and also a writer. She released an album 'Shalini' when she was only 13. She has sung over 5000 songs in various Indian languages for Indian films and albums. She has sung for the likes of A. R. Rahman, Harris Jayaraj, Illayaraja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Vidyasagar and many others.
Raavanan is the soundtrack album composed by A. R. Rahman, who accompanied for the music and background score for the 2010 Indian Tamil film of the same name, written and directed by Mani Ratnam. It Stars Prithviraj Sukumaran, Vikram and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in lead roles. Abhishek Bachchan reprise Vikram's role in hindi version. The film marks Rahman's second collaboration with actor Vikram after Pudhiya Mannargal (1994) and First collaboration with Prithviraj Sukumaran. The soundtrack album was released by Sony Music India on 28 May 2010.
Raanjhanaa is the soundtrack album, composed by A. R. Rahman of the 2013 Hindi film of the same name, directed by Anand L. Rai and starring Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol in the lead roles. The film is produced by Krishika Lulla under the banner Eros International. The lyrics of the original version were written by Irshad Kamil whereas the Tamil lyrics were written by poet Vairamuthu. The soundtrack album features nine original tracks. The music of the original version of the soundtrack was released on the co-branded record labels Sony Music India and Eros Music on 11 June 2013 and the Tamil version on 24 June 2013.
Kochadaiiyaan is the soundtrack album composed by A. R. Rahman to the motion capture animated Tamil film of the same name directed by Soundarya R. Ashwin. The original version as well as the dubbed Telugu version of the soundtrack was released on 9 March 2014. The Hindi version was released online on Eros Now on 13 March 2014. Upon its release, the soundtrack became the first Tamil film music album to trend on Twitter and top the iTunes India charts.
Keba Jeremiah is an Indian guitarist and music producer. He works on musical soundtracks for Gospel songs, Bollywood, Tollywood (Telugu), Kollywood music industry.
O Kadhal Kanmani is the soundtrack album, composed by A. R. Rahman, to the 2015 Indian Tamil film of the same name written and directed by Mani Ratnam. The soundtrack album consists of nine tracks each in original Tamil and dubbed Telugu version of the albums with one track "Maula Wa Sallim" being common to both. Majority of the tracks for the original version were penned by Vairamuthu. The lyrics to the Telugu version were written by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri.The lyrics to its Hindi version songs in its Hindi remake OK Jaanu is by Gulzar The songs are fusion of contemporary music with carnatic music as well as pure classical Indian music based songs in the genres—carnatic and Hindustani. The original score was produced by ensemble Qutb-e-Kripa along with Rahman. The score utilises the songs and re-performed carnatic compositions of musicians Tyagaraja and Annamacharya.
Sarvam Thaala Mayam is the soundtrack album for the 2019 Tamil film of the same name. The soundtrack consists of six feature songs along with instrumental tracks. The film's director Menon composed a song that Rahman curated.
Maya Neelakantan is a Tamil prodigy and guitarist from Chennai, India. Playing heavy metal music since six years of age and also learning Carnatic music from nine years of age, she auditioned at the America's Got Talent season 19 in April 2024. Her performance, an instrumental fusion of Carnatic intro and the heavy metal song "Last Resort" by Papa Roach, became a sensational hit. For her guitar prowess, Simon Cowell called her the "rock goddess." Playing Metallica's "Master of Puppets" at the quarterfinals, she could not make it to the next round.
