Yuvan Shankar Raja was born on 31 August 1979 in Chennai, the youngest son of the composer Ilaiyaraaja. He is a film composer, singer and lyricist who has worked mostly in Tamil cinema, with some work in Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films.
His film debut was Aravindhan, released on 28 February 1997, when he was a teenager. The film failed at the box office. His breakthrough came with the soundtracks for Dheena (2001) and Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002).
He built a large following with scores for Kaadhal Kondein (2003), Pudhupettai (2006), Paiyaa (2010) and Mankatha (2011), which was his biggest project to that point. He collaborated often with directors such as Selvaraghavan and Venkat Prabhu, and his music appeals strongly to younger listeners.
He has also sung many of his own songs, and he is known to fans by nicknames such as “BGM King”, “Little Maestro” and “U1”.
While his father is known for a different generation of sound, Yuvan carved out his own path and remains one of the most followed composers in South India.
Featured image: Yuvan Shankar Raja (cropped). Photo by https://silverscreen.in, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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