#45YearsOfIlayaraaja: Five landmark films of the musical maestro Ilayaraaja

Ilayaraaja, the name needs no introduction as his music has been doing the talks for more than four decades. On this day in 1976, Ilayaraaja made his debut as a composer with the romantic film 'Annakilli', which was directed by Devaraj–Mohan. The composer established himself well to become a popular Indian composer. Ilayaraaja has scored music to more than 1000 films across languages and composed more than 7000 songs in the history of Indian cinema. On this special day, we list down five of his landmark films that made some exceptional contributions to Indian music.

Pic Courtesy - Twitter

After several successful movies in Tamil, Ilayaraaja made his entry into Tollywood with the Tamil-Telugu bilingual drama 'Annai Oru Aalayam'. Rajinikanth and Sripriya played lead roles while Anjali Devi played Rajinikanth's mother in the sentiment drama. Ilayaraaja has scored six songs for the film, and all were a huge hit both in Tamil and Telugu.

Pic Courtesy - Twitter

After several successful movies in Tamil, Ilayaraaja made his entry into Tollywood with the Tamil-Telugu bilingual drama 'Annai Oru Aalayam'. Rajinikanth and Sripriya played lead roles while Anjali Devi played Rajinikanth's mother in the sentiment drama. Ilayaraaja has scored six songs for the film, and all were a huge hit both in Tamil and Telugu.

Pic Courtesy - Twitter

Ilayaraaja turned as a favorite for many directors down South by scoring pleasant music to their films. Ilayaraaja then landed in Hindi with 'Sadma', which was directed by Balu Mahendra. The film was the remake of the director's own film 'Moondram Pirai', and he maintained his lead stars Kamal Haasan and Sridevi for the remake. Ilayaraaja then scored music to several Hindi films and delivered the best for the audience.

Pic Courtesy - Twitter

Ilayaraaja and Mani Ratnam have delivered super hit films and the composer's 500th film 'Anjali' marked in his direction. Ilayaraaja has delivered different moods of songs for the film, and it turned into one reason for the film's success. 'Anjali' features Raghuvaran, Revathi, and Shamili in lead roles, and the film was India's official entry to the Oscars in 1991.

Pic Courtesy - Twitter

Ilayaraaja is one of the rare composers by touching the grand feat of scoring music to 1000 films. 'Tharai Thappattai', which was directed by Bala, marked the 1000th film of Ilayaraaja, and he reunited with the director for it after a break. Ilayaraaja's musical added more power to the film that is based on Karakattam, and he won the National Film Award for Best Background Score at the 63rd National Film Awards.

Pic Courtesy - Twitter