Karunanidhi and received the Kalaimamani Award, an annual award for excellence in the field of arts from the government of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. He was conferred the title Isaignani ('savant of music') in 1988 by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Viswanathan at the World Fest-Houston Film Festival for the film Vishwa Thulasi (2005). He won the Gold Remi Award for Best Music Score jointly with film composer M. He also won the National Film Award for Best Background Score for the Malayalam film Pazhassi Raja (2010). Ilaiyaraaja has won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the films Saagara Sangamam (1984), Sindhu Bhairavi (1986) and Rudraveena (1989).
Ilaiyaraaja specialized in classical guitar and had done a course in it from the Trinity College of Music, London. In 1968, Ilaiyaraaja began a music course with Professor Dhanraj in Madras (now Chennai), which included an overview of Western classical music, compositional training in techniques such as counterpoint, and study in instrumental performance. While working with the troupe, he penned his first composition, a musical setting of an elegy written by the Tamil poet laureate Kannadasan for Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister. At the age of 14, he joined a travelling musical troupe headed by his elder step-brother, Pavalar Varadarajan, and spent the next decade performing throughout South India. Growing up in a rural area, Ilaiyaraaja was exposed to a range of Tamil folk music. Ilaiyaraaja was born into a poor rural Dalit family in Pannaipuram, Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India, as the third son of Daniel Ramaswamy and Chinnathayammal. He is married to Jeeva, and the couple's two sons (Karthik Raja and Yuvan Shankar Raja) and daughter (Bhavatharini) are film music composers and singers. In the 2000s, he composed a range of non-film music, including religious and devotional songs, an oratorio, and world music. He has thrice won the Indian National Film Award for best film scoring. His work integrated Tamil folk lyricism and introduced broader Western musical sensibilities into the South Indian musical mainstream.
Ilaiyaraaja is a prominent composer of film music in South Indian cinema from the late 1970s till date. He is based in Chennai, the fourth largest city in India and the centre of the Tamil film industry (colloquially known as Kollywood).