In Tamil film music, fans always compare Ilaiyaraaja and AR Rahman’s body of work and their achievements. After Rahman won the academy award for Slumdog Millionaire, there wasn’t much comparison because the composer got the international recognition but fans of Ilaiyaraaja were proud because of their favorite composer had a lead in National Film Awards.
But with the 65th National Film Awards, Rahman outperformed Ilaiyaraaja in the number of National Awards. For the year 2017, Rahman has got the Best Music Composer (Kaatru Veliyidai) and Best Background Score (Mom), which means he won two awards. Previously, Rahman’s National Award count was 4 and Ilaiyaraaja’s award count was 5. But with these two National Awards, Rahman has broken the record of Ilaiyaraaja to become first Indian music composer to win 6 National Awards.
As Rahman has a long musical career, he is expected to win many awards in coming years whereas Ilaiyaraaja is not composing music for many films these days. But fans of Ilaiyaraaja say that the Best Background Score category was only recently announced and had they introduced long back, Isaignani would have won many awards.
Now, it’s time to congratulate AR Rahman for this phenomenal achievement in Indian film music.
