Yuvan Shankar Raja Biography

Yuvan Shankar Raja (Tamil: யுவன் சங்கர் ராஜா) is a film composer and singer from Tamil Nadu, India.

Family
Yuvan is the youngest son of film composer Ilaiyaraaja, the younger brother of music director, Karthik Raja and the younger brother of playback singer and music director Bhavatharini. Yuvan has said that his brother Karthik Raja is more talented than him, but did not get a successful break into the music business.

Personal life
Yuvan Shankar Raja graduated from the St. Bede's School in Chennai. In 2005, he married his long time girlfriend Sujaya Chandran. Two years later the couple had filed for divorce through mutual consent and in February 2008, they finally had been granted divorce. The reason for the separation has been cited as 'irrevocable differences'. He broke off his friendship with Selvaraghavan due to certain untold issues and left the movie Aayirathil Oruvan.

Film score and soundtracks
His first composition was soundtrack for the Tamil language movie Aravindhan. Subsequently he broke into the Kollywood music scene with album Thulluvadho Ilamai. Other soundtracks on which he has worked include Manmadhan, Kadhal Kondein, 7G Rainbow Colony, and Kanda Naal Mudhal.

His soundtracks for the films Silambattam, Aegan, Saroja, Yaaradi Nee Mohini, Billa, Satham Podathey,Manmadhan and Vallavan established him as a leading composer. Soundtracks of films like Pudhupettai, which featured a traditional orchestral score played by Chapraya Symphony Orchestra in Bangkok, or Katrathu Tamil were critically acclaimed. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s collaborations with the directors Selvaraghavan, Ameer Sultan, Silambarasan, Venkat Prabhu, Vasanth and Vishnuvardhan have resulted in successful soundtracks. Upcoming features include Kettavan, Yogi, and Sarvam. He has been heralded as one of the top music composers in Chennai. His album with Sony is an eagerly expected one and other than this, he has a long list of 16 other films for which he is the composer. He will also be entering the Hindi film industry with talks going on regarding two films. He is also well known for his re-recording/background music in his films like Pudhupettai, 7/G Rainbow Colony, Raam, Kadhal kondaen,etc. He is also the only music director in the tamil film industry to win the best music composer award for the film 'Raam' in the Cyprus International film festival.

Other works
Besides scoring film music and soundtracks, he also produces personal music albums from time to time. In his very early years, in 1999, when he was not familiar to most people yet, he made the Tamil album The Blast that contained 12 tracks, which featured vocals by Kamal Haasan, Unnikrishnan and Nithyashree. However, the album went downright unnoticed. Currently he is working on his second album, the rights of which have been acquired by Sony BMG and is yet to be titled. It is reportedly a bilingual album to be released both in Tamil and Hindi. The launch is expected to happen in 2009.

In January 2009, Yuvan announced his first live performance at a show at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, to be held on April 25, 2009. According to Yuvan, the show, titled Yuvan - Live in Concert, will feature around 30 songs, which will be sung by singers like Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Vijay Yesudas, Shreya Ghoshal and his father Ilaiyaraaja, as well as some stage dances in between by actresses Sana Khan and Meenakshi