Yuvan Shankar Raja

Yuvan Shankar Raja was 17 when producer T. Siva, impressed by his tunes, asked him to score the film Aravindhan, which became his first credit. Born on 31 August 1979 in Chennai, the youngest child of composer Ilaiyaraaja, he left school after Class 10 and took piano lessons at Musee Musical in Chennai; it was his mother who encouraged him to make music his profession. Also known as U1, the composer and singer writes mostly for Tamil films, and now and then for Telugu, Kannada and Hindi ones. The songs of Dheena (2001) and Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002) brought his breakthrough, and by the mid-2000s he was one of the most sought-after composers in Tamil cinema. 7G Rainbow Colony won him the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil in 2004. Raam earned him an award at the Cyprus International Film Festival in 2006, and the Telugu musical Oy! a Filmfare Special Award – South in 2009. He is credited with introducing hip hop to Tamil film music and is often called the "BGM King". Over 25 years he has worked on more than 190 films, and his honours include two Filmfare Awards South and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. He launched the label U1 Records in 2015 and the production house YSR Films in 2017. Joju George's Paripadi marks his Malayalam debut as composer.