There is no doubt that Bollywood music is very closely associated with movies. So, if you have ever seen one of the films, surely you have noticed that unique sound. There isn’t a single film without a complete soundtrack, regardless of its genre. Taking into consideration how widespread the original sound is, the fact that there are numerous prominent music directors comes as no surprise.
Due to the fact that Bollywood music is slowly, but surely, conquering the world, you are already familiar with some of the people that we are going to mention in this article. Even if you don’t know them by name, the chances are that you have already heard some of their masterpieces.
A.R. Rahman
He is currently one of the most popular composers of Indian music and his work on the soundtrack of “Slumdog Millionaire” made his famous all around the world. At the beginning of his career, he composed songs for Indian TV channels and advertisement, and with the 1992 movie “Roja” he rose to prominence. Since then he has won two Academy and Grammy Awards, as well as a BAFTA and a Golden Globe Awards, together with numerous others.
An interesting fact is that he doesn’t have a traditional education in classical music, but still, he has found a way to combine it with electronic and world music and present it, in a completely new light, to people around the world. You might be familiar with a little tune called “Jai Ho! (You are my destiny)” that is actually a remake of a song from his Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.
Amit Trivedi
This music director, singer, composer, and lyricist is known for his flexibility between different genres such as authentic classical, novel fusion, and angry-rock sound. Before becoming famous for his work on the Hindi movie “Aamir”, from 2008, he worked on numerous popular jingles and other artists’ albums.
His big break came the following year when a film “Dev.D” was released. This soundtrack won him numerous awards, one of which was the 2010 National Film Award for Best Music Director. The fact that he has worked on 7 movies that are going to premiere this year, is good enough to demonstrate not only his popularity but also talent.
Pritam Chakraborty
Chakraborty, or simply known as Pritam is another composer that has been praised for his versatility of different genres of music. During the early 2000s, he collaborated with Jeet Gannguli on soundtracks for two movies. Even though the first one wasn’t well-received, the second one “Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai”, 2002 romantic drama, was an absolute hit, and all the songs were at the top of the charts.
After this initial success, he continued his career as a solo artist. In 2004, he composed the soundtrack for an action thriller movie called “Dhoom”. The title track was sung in both Hindi and English, by Sunidhi Chauhan and Tata Young, respectively. The song became an instant hit all over the world, especially in East Asia, the USA, and the UK. For this work, he won Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year in 2005.
Santhosh Narayanan
When compared to the above-mentioned composers, one might say that Narayanan rose to prominences fairly recently. His breakthrough was a soundtrack that the composed for Indian Tamil film “Attakathi” in 2012.
Before becoming a composer, Narayanan worked as a recording engineer since he holds a degree in Computer Science & Engineering.
During a short period of time, in 2009, he has a member of a contemporary folk group “La Pongal”. Today, he almost exclusively composes for Tamil cinema.
Shankar Mahadevan
Mahadevan is a part of a composing trio called Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and they have written music for over 50 movies, in 5 languages (Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, and English). Besides composing, he also acted in two movies (in 1995 and 2015).
He is a very successful playback singer, having sung over 7000 songs since the early 90s, which, you have to admit is very impressive. You can hear him perform in numerous recent movies such as “Udhyama Simham”, “Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy”, “Manirarnika: The Queen of Jhansi”, and so on. Also, you can find his other tunes on the pagalworld website.
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Besides being known as a singer-songwriter and a music director that often uses the elements of Western music and hip hop, he is credited for starting the “era of remixes” in India. Outside of the borders of India, he is known by the nickname of “Youth Icon”.
The soundtrack from the movie “Raam” won him the Cyprus International Film Festival Awards in 2006. Some of his other achievements include two Filmfare Awards (the Best Music Director and Filmfare Special Award) and nominations for two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.
Some of his most successful work includes Telugu album “Oy!” for a romantic drama film of the same name, and a soundtrack from 2011, for the movie “Panjaa” that was an absolute success on the charts and that has created new trends.
Harris Jayaraj
Jayaraj is another music director that predominately creates for Tamil movies. As a composer, he debuted in the 2001 romance movie called “Minnale”. All nine songs from this album were well-received, and actually, a part of the film’s success is credited to the soundtrack. His latest work will be released with the upcoming spy thriller movie “Dhruva Natchathiram”.
In 2011, he performed all around the world with multiple Tamil playback singers such as Tippu, Naresh Iyer, Srilekha Parthasarathy as a part of his first concert tour – Harris: On The Edge. Besides Indian cities, they also performed in Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa.
Anirudh Ravichander
Even though he is in his late twenties, Ravichander has made a name for himself as a music director in Tamil cinema. His debut song “Why This Kolaveri Di” was released in 2012 went viral soon after its release, and today, it has over 200 million views on YouTube.
Ravichander has many awards that prove his success and talent such as staggering nine South Indian International Movie Awards. We cannot wait to see what this young man will create in the future.
