Legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja was honoured with the second highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan, by the Government of India on Thursday. The five time National Award-winner has been composing for largely Tamil, but also Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films over four decades and over 1,000 films.
Renowned for his unique harmony between Indian classical arrangements and the Western style of music, Ilaiyaraaja first composed music for the 1975 Tamil film Annakkili and has given music for over 6,500 songs.
In 2010, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.
He is acknowledged to be a great influence on new age composers like AR Rahman.
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