Ilaiyaraaja (born Gnanadesikan on 3 June 1943) is an Indian film composer, singer, and lyricist mainly in the Tamil film Industry and Telugu Film Industry. He is regarded as one of the finest music composers in India. Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor, and a songwriter. To date, he has composed over 4500 songs and provided film scores for more than 950 Indian films in various languages in a career spanning more than 30 years.