Legendary music director Ilaiyaraaja who has given Tollywood stars like
Chiranjeevi and
Rajnikanth some of their chart-topping hits from the 70s and 80s is celebrating his 77
th birthday today and Tollywood took to social media to convey their wishes to him.
Music director
Devi Sri Prasad who has always been inspired by Ilaiyaraaja dedicated an instrumental performance to the maestro. He wrote, “HAPPIEST MUSICAL BDAY to d RAJA of MUSIC..ISAIGNANI ILAYARAJA SIR. Dedicating dis INSTRUMENTAL PRFRMNCE of d #VIOLINSONG frm #IDDARAMMAYILATHO 2 d MAESTRO who always Inspires me. Lov U 4ever Dearest RAJA SIR. THANKU 4 all d MUSIC ” and posted a video of him performing a song from the
movie Iddarammayiltho
.
Director Harish Shankar tweeted, “Happy Birthday God…” along with the lyrics from Ilaiyaraaja’s hit song Raja Rajadi Raja from the movie Gharshana.
Ilaiyaraaja made his debut as a music director in Tollywood with the movie Vayasu PiliChindi in 1978 while the last Tollywood film he worked on was Kathalo Rajakumari in 2017. Ilaiyaraaja who is nicknamed Isaignani meaning musical genius has been awarded five National Awards so far. Three of which have been for Best Music Director while two were for Best Background Score. He also received the prestigious
Padma Vibhushan
award for his contribution to music in the year 2018. Some of his best works in Telugu include Maate Mantramu, Aakasham Enatido, Jilibili Palukulu, Kinnerasani Vachinadamma and Manasu palike Mounaraagam. He also worked closely with Telugu directors like K Raghavendra Rao and Ram Gopal Varma.