Anirudh Ravichander | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Anirudh Ravichander |
Born |
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
16 October 1990
Genres | Film score |
Occupation(s) |
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Years active | 2011–present |
Labels | Sony Music |
Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990) is an Indian film composer and singer, who works predominantly in Tamil films. The song, "Why This Kolaveri Di", that Anirudh had composed for the Tamil film 3, went viral on YouTube.
Anirudh is the son of actor Ravi Raghavendra, nephew of Rajinikanth and Latha Rajinikanth, and cousin of Aishwarya and Soundarya Rajinikanth. His mother Lakshmi is a dancer. Anirudh was a part of a band in school called Zinx. At the age of 10, he started composing music and landed his first break – '3' at the age of 21
He did his schooling at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, K.K. Nagar. He graduated from Loyola College, Chennai in 2011, which according to him was just a back up in case his music career did not take off. Anirudh learnt classical piano from Trinity College of Music, London. He also learnt Carnatic music, and was part of a Carnatic fusion band.
Anirudh made his debut as music composer in his cousin Aishwarya R. Dhanush's directorial debut 3 starring Dhanush and Shruti Haasan. While pursuing his degree at Loyola College, he had done background scores for about short films by Aishwaryaa and was convinced by her to also work on her first commercial venture. Furthermore, at the launch of the film in August 2011, Anirudh revealed that he had played the keyboard for compositions by A. R. Rahman and was a part of a band called Zinx. In early November 2011, a leaked version of a song from the film, "Why This Kolaveri Di" circulated online and the film's team decided to subsequently release it officially on 16 November 2011 with a music video shot featuring Dhanush singing the song at AM studios, accompanied by composer Anirudh on a keyboard. It instantly became viral on social networking sites for its quirky "Tanglish" (portmanteau word of Tamil and English) lyrics. Soon, the song became the most searched YouTube video in India and an internet phenomenon across Asia. Within a few weeks, YouTube honoured the video with a '"Recently Most Popular" Gold Medal award and "Trending" silver medal award for receiving a large number of hits in a short time. The song was built around a South Indian folk rhythm. Its instrumentation consists of nadaswaram, shehnai, saxophone, urumee and thavil drums, acoustic guitar, and keyboards mixed with electronic synths and scratches. The vocals utilize the singing style of Tamil folk culture. Lyrically, the song revolves around the film's main actor being dumped by his girlfriend; the song is sung by the character in a drunken state, with many of the lines nonsensical. According to composer, 3's director Aishwarya R. Dhanush wanted a light-hearted song about failed love. Ravichander quickly composed the tune in about 10 minutes. Dhanush then began work on the lyrics, which he completed in about 20 minutes of playful singing and writing.