Did you know? The only Dr. Rajkumar film featuring Ilaiyaraja's music was a commercial failure

Music maestro

Ilaiyaraja

can be regarded as more than just an ordinary film composer. His music captured the true essence of any story and his songs were more than just compositions for they carried an energy analogous to that of the film. In many ways, he was instrumental to the commercial success of any film and it shouldn't be a surprise that most popular films of that era - the '80s primarily, have one thing in common - his music.

However, that wasn't to be the case when he combined forces with another bonafide superstar. Many would know that

Dr. Rajkumar

had grown in stature over the years not just as an actor but his superlative singing too had added a dimension, or two, to his personality. He was the man with the golden voice and was a cut above the rest for the simple reason that he could sing his own songs. So, when Ilaiyaraja was brought in to compose the songs for the 1981 film '

Nee Nanna Gellalare

', the expectations were huge and the film almost seemed destined to do very well commercially.

But that wasn't to be. While the songs from the film, especially

Jeeva Hoovagide

, achieved cult status in their own right, the film failed to generate the same response among the audience. Despite Dr. Raj being at his prime around the time, the film reportedly was his weakest performance as a theatrical run and managed to clock only 63 days in cinema halls. To say the least, this was an underwhelming performance by his standards and the poor record was to be later matched and broken by his 1987 film 'Ondu Muttina Kathe' (directed by Shankar Nag). For reasons unknown, Ilaiyaraja would not come back to score another Dr. Rajkumar film but the fact that their primary collaboration failed to trigger a greater response is still baffling to many. 'Nee Nanna Gellalare' managed to break even, nevertheless.