Most Innovative Indian Film Music Composers
List of the most innovative Indian film music composers of our time.
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A two-time winner and five-time nominee of the Academy Award, A. R. Rahman is popularly known as the man who has redefined contemporary Indian music. Rahman, according to a BBC estimate, has sold more than 150 million copies of his work comprising of music from more than 100 film soundtracks and albums across over half a dozen languages, including landmark scores such as "Roja", "Bombay", "Dil Se", "Taal", "Lagaan", "Vandemataram", "Jodhaa Akbar", "Slumdog Millionaire" and "127 Hours".
Rahman pursued music as a career at a very young age. After assisting leading musicians in India, he went on to compose jingles and scores for popular Indian television features. He also obtained a degree in western classical music from the Trinity College of Music, London and set up his own in-house studio called Panchathan Record-Inn in Chennai. In 1991, noted filmmaker Mani Ratnam offered Rahman a movie called "Roja" which was a run-away success and brought nationwide fame and acclaim to the composer. The movie also won Rahman the Indian National Award for Best Music Composer, the first time ever by a debut. Since then, Rahman has gone on to win the National Award three more times - the most ever by any music composer.
In 1997, to commemorate 50 years of Indian Independence, Sony Music signed Rahman as its first artist in South Asia. The result was "Vande Mataram", an album that instantly and successfully rekindled the spirit of patriotism among Indians around the world. In 2001, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, renowned music composer of musicals including "Phantom of the Opera" and "Jesus Christ Superstar", invited Rahman to compose for his musical, "Bombay Dreams", which was the first production that Sir Webber did not compose for. "Bombay Dreams" opened to packed houses at London's West End and had an unprecedented run for two years. The show later premiered in New York. In 2005, Rahman composed the score for the stage production of "The Lord of the Rings", one of the most expensive productions mounted on stage.
In 2008, Rahman's work gained global prominence with the extraordinary success of his score for "Slumdog Millionaire" that won eight Academy Awards including two for Rahman - Best Score and Best Song. Rahman won over 15 awards for this score including two Grammys, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA. Rahman's music led him to be noticed internationally with several of his tracks featured in movies such as "The Lord of War", "Inside Man" and "The Accidental Husband". His composition, "Bombay Theme" holds the distinction for being featured in over 50 international compilations. Aside from "Slumdog Millionaire", he also scored the music for Hollywood productions, "Elizabeth - The Golden Age", "Couples Retreat", "127 Hours", "People Like Us", "Warriors of Heaven & Earth", "The 100 Foot Journey", "Million Dollar Arm" and "Pele".
Rahman has been conferred with honorary doctorates from the Trinity College of Music, Aligarh Muslim University, Anna University, Middlesex University and Berklee College of Music. In 2009, he was featured in Time Magazine's "Time100: The Most Influential People."
In 2011, Rahman joined a super band, SuperHeavy, comprised of Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and Dave Stewart. Rahman has collaborated with several other international artists including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton, MIA, Vanessa Mae, the Pussycat Dolls, Sarah Brightman, Dido, Hossam Ramzy, Hans Zimmer and Akon.
Rahman remains one of the few mainstream artists whose works have been performed live by the likes of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Babelsberg Film Orchestra and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Rahman has expanded his focus to newer horizons including the establishment of the A. R. Rahman Foundation to help poor and underprivileged children. Rahman has also announced initiatives to establish a tradition in western classical music in India and has embarked on an ambitious venture to set up the KM Music Conservatory and the KM Music Symphony Orchestra based out of Chennai, India.- Composer
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Yuvan Shankar Raja is an Indian film score and music composer and singer-songwriter. He Mainly scores music for Tamil films. Being a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use of Western music elements and often credited with having introduced hip hop to the Tamil film and music industry and started the "era of remixes" in Tamil Nadu which included mixed EDM and jazz styles of music. Starting at the age of 16 he composed music for his first film in tamil called aravindhan which went on to be noted only for his music. In a few years he got to work for A. R. Murugadoss's directorial debut in 2000, the action flick Dheena, starring Ajith Kumar, which went on to become a blockbuster and Yuvan Shankar Raja's first major successful film and his background score was well apreciated. Following that film he gave many wonderful compostions in movies such as Thulluvatho ilamai , Nandha , Mounam pesiyathey , kaadhal kondaen, 7G rainbow colony , Manmadhan and many more.His composition in the film raam made him the winner of best music director in cyprus int. film festival making him the first indian to win that award.His compositons in the movie paiyaa gave him a huge fanbase equal to that of actors in indian film industr.He is often compared to oscar winning composer AR rahman And yuvan shankar raja is indeed an " Young Maestro".- Music Artist
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Amit Trivedi's musical journey started during his days at Rizvi College Mumbai where he joined a fusion band called "OM". The band did few gigs and got an album released by Times Music but the album failed due to poor promotion. Amit's struggle continued with ad-jingles, background scores for TV serials and Theater. As a part of a two year contract with Sony BMG, Amit composed some tracks for Abhijeet Sawant's Junoon and one track in Prashant Tamang's debut album. Singer Shilpa Rao introduced him to director Anurag Kashyap who was looking for a composer for his ambitious project Dev.D. Anurag was so impressed by Amit's music that he decided to convert Dev.D (2009) into a musical. Dev.D was meant to be his first release but ran into some production delays. Anurag recommended his name for Aamir (2008) which eventually became his first Bollywood release. Dev.D was the major turning point for him, earning accolades, fame and a National Film Award for Best Music Direction. He also won two Filmfare and a Star Screen award for the same movie. He continued working with his college band mate and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya in Dev.D, Wake Up Sid (2009) and Udaan (2010) He believes in making good music that can be related to film's script instead of becoming a music factory. His favorite genres are Jazz, Rock and Western Classical and favorite instruments Clarinet, Oboe, Mandolin, Harmonica.- Composer
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Raghu Dixit was born on 11 November 1974 in Mysore Karnataka. He is a music artist and composer, known for Gully Boy (2019), Srimanthudu (2015) and S/O Satyamurthy (2015).