Tamil News

Ilaiyaraaja Concert Proceeds To Fund Cine Musicians’ Union Building

By Aarthi Murali
Mandolin Shrinivas Birthday Anniversary Event

Composer Ilaiyaraaja has announced that the proceeds from his 76th birthday concert ‘Isai Celebrates Isai’ will go towards the construction of a building for the Cine Musicians’ Union.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The concert was held at EVP Film City in Chennai yesterday, where the composer performed some of his best hits and lesser-known songs in a five-hour live event. SP Balasubrahmanyam and KJ Yesudas, who have given countless hits with Ilaiyaraaja, sang with him.

A report by TNIE says that Ilaiyaraaja sang ‘Enge Pirandhaai Isaye’ in an impromptu performance with SPB. Pictures of them rehearsing for the event were viral last week. This is their first live event together since their fall out over royalties in 2017.

After KJ Yesudas came on stage, they sang ‘Kaatu Kuyilu’ from Thalapathy. Mano, Usha Uthup, Bombay Jayashree, Sudha Raghunathan and others were also part of the concert. Mano sang ‘Oh Priya Priya’, a tribute to director Mani Ratnam, who also celebrated his birthday yesterday.

Ilaiyaraaja reportedly spoke about the story behind many of his hits for the first time, and visuals from films such as Mouna Raagam, Hey Ram and Sethu were screened with and without music to show the difference that the background score made. The concert began at 8pm and ended past midnight.

There was some disturbance in the middle of Mano’s performance, when Ilaiyaraaja paused the event because a security guard came on stage to bring water for the performers. The composer asked for an explanation from the guard, who then apologised. He further told the audience that it was wrong that people with Rs 500 tickets occupied the seats that costed Rs 5,000 and 10,000.

The event faced issues in seating arrangement and poor management of traffic and parking in and around EVP, which many people have tweeted about.

Ahead of the concert yesterday morning, Ilaiyaraaja said that an announcement was awaiting people. He later revealed that in order to support the music community, all proceeds from the concert would go towards the construction of a building for South Indian Cine Musicians Association.

Meanwhile, many celebrities wished Ilaiyaraaja on his birthday. KS Chithra, Dhanush, Khushboo Sundar, Vishal Krishna wished the composer. Kamal Haasan met him last morning.

Aarthi Murali is a Alum at Silverscreen India, and can be reached by email at aarthi.murali@silverscreen.in