Anirudh Ravichander

Anirudh's great-grandfather was director Krishnaswami Subrahmanyam, a filmmaker in the 1930s.

He consequently went on to gain recognition for the film through accolades, notably the Vijay Award for Best Find of the Year as well as nominations at the South Indian International Movie Awards and the 60th Filmfare Awards South.

He also worked on the Telugu dubbed version of the film.

Anirudh teamed up with Dhanush soon after to produce a Kolaveri-inspired track titled "Sachin anthem" commemorating Sachin Tendulkar in association with the health drink, Boost.

Next, he sang and composed a single for David – a multi-starrer directed by Bejoy Nambiar; "Kanave Kanave" in Tamil and "Yu Hi Re" in Hindi.

The album also opened to very positive reviews, with a critic noting: Anirudh's song was "the pick of the album".

His next album was Ethir Neechal, starring Sivakarthikeyan.

Anirudh introduced rappers Yo Yo Honey Singh and Hiphop Tamizha in the album.

Moreover, Sony Music India released the complete background score of Ethir Neechal via YouTube owing to its popularity.

Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also credited mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian music composer, and singer who works primarily in Tamil Cinema.

He has also composed music for few Hindi and Telugu films.

He has won two Filmfare Awards South, nine SIIMA Awards, six Edison Awards and five Vijay Awards.

He graduated from the Loyola College, Chennai in 2011, which according to him was just a backup in case his music career did not take off.

Anirudh learnt piano from Trinity College of Music, London.

He also was part of a fusion band.

Anirudh also pursued a diploma in sound engineering from Soundtech Media Audio Engineering Institute, Chennai.

In his school days, Anirudh and his band participated in a reality TV show judged by A. R. Rahman, and his band was one of the winners along with five other bands.

Anirudh Ravichander made his debut as a music composer in his cousin Aishwarya Rajinikanth's directorial debut 3, starring Dhanush.

While pursuing his degree at Loyola College, he had done background scores for the short films made by Aishwarya and his work on short films convinced her to have him work on her first commercial venture.

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.

It instantly became popular on social networking sites for its quirky Tanglish lyrics.

Soon, the song became the most searched YouTube video in India and internet phenomenon across Asia.

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 the composer, 3's director Aishwarya Rajinikanth wanted a light-hearted song about failed love.

Anirudh quickly composed the tune in about 10 minutes.

The remaining songs of the album were released in December and also received very positive reviews from critics.

A reviewer from Behindwoods noted, "Such a promising debut by a composer hasn't been seen in recent Tamil cinema history", while Rediff.com's reviewer noted that "all the songs in 3 are good and come with appealing instrumental arrangements", concluding that it was "an intriguing collection."

Anirudh also received praise for his background score in the film.

His debut song "Why This Kolaveri Di", composed for the 2012 film 3, went viral across the globe and has achieved over 400 million views on YouTube.

His next soundtrack, Vanakkam Chennai released in July 2013.

For the song "Oh Penne", he roped in Vishal Dadlani for the first time in Tamil music.

Another promotional song, "Chennai City Gangster", saw him collaborate again with Hiphop Tamizha and British Indian rapper Hard Kaur, with the trio also featuring in a music video for the film.

In September 2013, he was signed on to compose the background score for Selvaraghavan's fantasy film Irandam Ulagam, after Harris Jayaraj had opted out.

Anirudh noted his happiness at working with Selvaraghavan early in his career, despite being called up as a replacement and subsequently recorded for the film in Budapest.

Anirudh's next release Velaiyilla Pattathari, featured a song by veteran singer S. Janaki.

A.R. Murugadoss signed him to compose music for Kaththi (2014) starring Vijay, which included the viral hit "Selfie Pulla".

In 2016, he signed a record deal with Sony Music, which publishes his independent albums and live concerts.

In the same year, he featured with Diplo on the remix of Major Lazer's hit single "Cold Water".

Anirudh Ravichander is the son of actor Ravichander "Ravi" Raghavendra and classical dancer Lakshmi Ravichander and nephew of Latha Rajinikanth, thus making Aishwarya, Soundarya and Hrishikesh his cousins and Rajinikanth his uncle.

The soundtrack for the film became Anirudh's highest profile soundtrack until he was signed to compose music for Rajinikanth's Petta in 2019.