J. Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. He composes soundtracks predominantly for

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

films, while also having composed for a few films in Telugu and two films in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

. He has been honoured with

Kalaimamani The Kalaimamani is the highest civilian award in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. These awards are given by the ''Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram'' (literature, music and theatre), a unit of the Directorate of Art and Culture, Government ...

Award from the

Government of Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...

and the Life Time Achievement Award from Konijeti Rosaiah, the

Governor of Tamil Nadu The governor of Tamil Nadu is the head of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Governor (India), Governors in India have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the president of India at the central level. They exist in the Sta ...

. Since 2001, he has won 6

Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...

and has received 20

nominations. He has also won 6

Mirchi Music Awards ''Mirchi Music Awards'' are presented annually by ''Radio Mirchi'' to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Hindi language film music industry of India. The awards, given in seventeen different categories, were i ...

, 5

Vijay Awards The Vijay Awards are presented by the Tamil television channel STAR Vijay to honour excellence in Tamil cinema. It has been given annually since 2006, with the latest—the 10th edition—of the award-giving ceremony having been held i ...

, 4

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...

, 3 International Tamil Film Awards and Big FM Awards. In 2019, he was bestowed with the Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute Honorary Doctorate of Letters for his significant contributions to Tamil cinema music.

Early life

Harris Jayaraj was born and brought up in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. His father hails from a

Christian family and his mother from a Tamil

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

family. He studied at Krishnaswamy Matric School. At age six, Harris began his formal training in

carnatic music Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and southern Odisha. It is o ...

. His father, S. M. Jayakumar, was a noted film guitarist and have frequently collaborated with T. M. Soundararajan, A. L. Raghavan, M.S.Viswanathan, Soolamangalam Sisters,

K. J. Yesudas Kattassery Joseph Yesudas ( /jeːʃud̪aːs/; born 10 January 1940) is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely considered one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian m ...

S. Janaki Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely referred to as Janaki Amma and Nightingale of India(nightingale of South) . She is one of the greatest playback singers in the history ...

, Shankar Ganesh, S.P.Balasubramaniam, K. V. Mahadevan,

Malaysia Vasudevan Vasudevan (15 June 1944 – 20 February 2011), popularly known as Malaysia Vasudevan, was a prolific Tamil playback singer and actor. Born in the town of Kuala Selangor in the Federated Malay States (present day Malaysia), he moved to Che ...

, L. R. Eswari,

Jikki Pillavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni (3 November 1935 – 16 August 2004), more famously known as Jikki, was an Indian playback singer from Andhra Pradesh. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhalese, and Hindi lan ...

, K. Jamuna Rani, P.Susheela and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

music director Shyam. Following two distressing bomb blast incidents he became more religiously inclined and young Harris had to take over the family responsibility. His father wanted him to become a guitarist and made him learn

classical guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...

from Mr. A. Abdul Sattar. Harris scored the highest mark in Asia on his 4th grade exam of

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He started his music career as a guitarist in 1987 at age twelve under M. S. Viswanathan's assistant Joseph Krishna. Harris could pursue his academics only up to High School, by then he always had problem with his attendance due to his recording sessions. Having been trained in

, Harris completed Grade VIII exams conducted by the Trinity College, London. Later he started playing keyboard and developed interest over

synthesizers A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

. For this there was no tutor. He then started programming with his Roland MC-500 and went on to work as a

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

under more than twenty five music directors in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi,

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

, Bengali,

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

, Punjabi and Oriya working in more than 600 projects till the year 2000. Between 1987 and 2000, he worked under noted composers including

Raj–Koti Thotakura Somaraju ( – 21 May 2023) and Saluri Koteswara Rao, popularly known as Raj–Koti, were a duo of Indian film music composers, singer-songwriters, record producers, musicians and multi-instrumentalist in Telugu cinema. In a notable ...

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

Sadhu Kokila Sahaya Sheelan Shadrach, (born 24 March 1966) known by his Stage name Sadhu Kokila, is an Indian comedian, musician, actor, film director, producer, occasional screenwriter and lyricist who works in Kannada cinema. He began his career as a com ...

, Mani Sharma,

Karthik Raja Karthik Raja (born 29 June 1973) is an Indian composer and playback singer based in Chennai. He made his debut as a film composer in the Tamil film ''Pandiyan'' (1992) and went on to score music for many critically and commercially acclaimed f ...

Yuvan Shankar Raja Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979), is an Indian composer and playback singer. He mainly scores music for Tamil films along with few Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use o ...

, Sirpi,

Suresh Peters Suresh Peters (born 26 April 1968) is an Indian musician. He is a music producer, drummer, music director in five Indian languages and a playback singer in multiple Indian languages for feature films in India. Career Suresh Peters began perfor ...

, Chandrabose, Shyam, Ouseppachan, Adithyan and Vidyasagar. In his early years as a musician, Harris have worked in movie

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

s and

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

s of various popular movies including '' Nee Bareda Kadambari'', '' Muthu'', '' Seevalaperi Pandi'', '' Asuran'', '' Indian'', '' Aravindhan'', '' Ullaasam'', ''

Ratchagan ''Ratchagan'' () is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language romantic action film written, produced by K. T. Kunjumon, and directed by Praveen Gandhi in his directoral debut. The music and background score is composed by A. R. Rahman. It stars Nagarjuna an ...

'', ''

Jeans Jeans are a type of trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with the addition of copper pocket rivets added by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and patented by ...

'', ''

Padayappa ''Padayappa'' is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. It stars Sivaji Ganesan in his penultimate release and Rajinikanth in the titular lead. Ramya Krishnan and Soundarya share other lead r ...

'', '' Poovellam Kettuppar'', '' Mudhalvan'', ''

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

'', and '' Kandukondain Kandukondain''. While working as an additional programmer under A. R. Rahman, he composed music for various television commercials including a

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

commercial featuring actor Vijay. In his early years, he admired music composers M. S. Viswanathan,

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

, A. R. Rahman,

Salil Chowdhury Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1925 – 5 September 1995) was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Malayalam films, Malayalam films. ...

, and

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

Film career

Harris debuted as a composer with

Gautham Vasudev Menon Gautham Vasudev Menon (born 25 February 1973) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He has also directed Telugu cinema, Telugu, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Ma ...

's '' Minnale''. The album was well received, particularly the song ''Vaseegara'' sung by

Bombay Jayashri "Bombay" Jayashri Ramnath is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer, and musician. She has sung songs in multiple languages, including for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and English movies. Born into a family of musicians, Jayashri ...

was exceptionally popular. He received the

Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil The Filmfare Best Music Director Award is given to film composers by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Tamil ( Kollywood) films. A. R. Rahman is the most frequent winner with seventeen wins, whi ...

for his work in ''Minnale'', breaking the 9 years continuous record of A. R. Rahman. The following soundtrack albums '' 12B'' and '' Majunu'' met with high acclaim and praise. He also composed for the

remake of '' Minnale'' titled '' Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein'', also directed by Gautham Menon. Most of the tunes from the Tamil version were retained in the Hindi version too, and only two fresh tunes were composed. He then worked in '' Lesa Lesa'' directed by

Priyadarshan Priyadarshan Soman Nair (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He has worked primarily in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Hindi cinema, Hindi cinema since 1982, directing over 90 films in multiple Indian languages, ...

. The title track of '' Lesa Lesa'' was the first song in India to be released as a single prior to a film soundtrack album release. Harris made his debut in

Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...

with ''

Vasu The Vasus () are a group of deities in Hinduism associated with fire and light. They are described as the attendant deities of Indra, and later Vishnu. Generally numbering eight and classified as the Ashtavasu, they are described in the Ramayana a ...

''. He received the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil, Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director and ITFA Best Music Director Award for '' Kaakha Kaakha'', starring Suriya and

Jyothika Jyothika Saravanan (; born 18 October 1978) is an Indian actress and producer who primarily works in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu films. She has received several accolades including a National Film Award, five Filmfare Awards South, four Tamil N ...

. This film directed by

was a huge commercial success and the songs met with great critical acclaim. In its Telugu remake '' Gharshana'' two new songs apart from the Tamil version were added to suit the taste of Telugu audience. The song "Uyirin Uyire" reused as "Cheliya Cheliya" in Telugu and "Khwabon Khwabon" in Hindi had effective use of gibberish words which later became a signature element in Harris songs. Harris once again paired up with director Jeeva on '' Ullam Ketkumae'' after ''12B''. The music was appreciated for its excellency and synergy with the atmosphere in and out of the movie. Director S. Shankar, noted leading director of Tamil cinema, paired up with Harris in his magnum opus ''

Anniyan ''Anniyan'' ( ) is a 2005 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language psychological fiction, psychological action thriller film directed by S. Shankar and produced by V. Ravichandran (film producer), V. Ravichandran. The film stars Vikram (actor), V ...

''. It was the first time Shankar did not team up with A. R. Rahman. Shankar later mentioned that working with Harris was an experience. The

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

received several awards including Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director and Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil. The next film he scored was '' Ghajini'' directed by

AR Murugadoss Murugadas Arunachalam (born 25 September 1974), known professionally as AR Murugadoss, () is an Indian film director, screenwriter and film producer who predominantly works in the Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He is best known for directin ...

, for which he received Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director. Critics noted that the album had "scintillating, party-hopping numbers", which resulted in a huge commercial success in audio sales; the track "Sutum Vizhi" crossed 20 million downloads and turned out to be phenomenally successful. Harris crafted a necessary classiness into Gautham Menon's blockbuster crime thriller '' Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu'' starring

Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...

. Gautham revealed that he shares the entire script with Harris and provides input's from his side.

"Harris and I, when we work together, we put in a lot of effort. I give him the entire script. I give him inputs. When we sat down for ''Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu'', I told him to do away with the traditional pallavi- charanam format in the "Manjal veyyil" song."

Harris once again ventured into Telugu films with a successful album '' Sainikudu''. The music album of the film was released simultaneously in 10 chosen venues from five different countries. Gautham Menon who considers the music and background score of Harris as a major asset of his films, once again teamed up with Harris on a romantic-thriller '' Pachaikili Muthucharam''. The soundtracks of Pachaikili Muthucharam are appraised as melancholic, lilting, mysterious, and alternatively catchy. Harris' collaboration with Jeeva continued with '' Unnale Unnale''. The music album oozing with energy all through proved to be a cut above the rest. His next Telugu venture '' Munna'' had a good commercial reception, and the song "Manasa" fetched a Filmfare Best Singer Female award to

Sadhana Sargam Sadhana Sargam (née Ghanekar, born 7 March 1969) is an Indian singer known for her playback career in Indian cinema predominantly in Hindi, Marathi language, Marathi, Bengali language, Bengali, Nepali, Tamil language, Tamil and Telugu language, ...

. With the following album ''

Bheema Bhima (, ), also known as Bhimasena (, ), is a hero and one of the most prominent characters in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. As the second of the five Pandava brothers, Bhima was born to Kunti—the wife of King Pandu—fathered by Vayu, the ...

'', Harris continued his mettle with all the six songs. The track "Siru Parvaiyalae" used

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

words in interludes. The album was praised for bringing up visual recapitulation from audio. Harris used a live orchestra of 84 members for the action cop film '' Sathyam''. In 2009, Harris Jayaraj was signed in for

Vikram Kumar Vikram K. Kumar is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema. He is known for directing ''Yavarum Nalam'' (2009; ''13B'' in Hindi), ''Ishq (2011 film), Ishq'' (2011), ''Manam (film), Manam'' ( ...

's ''24'', which was to star Vikram. He was also signed in for the

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both the mainstream film industry ...

''Yoddha 2'', starring

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...

. But both films were subsequently shelved. In ''

Anegan ''Anegan'' (; ) is a 2015 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language historical fiction, period romantic action thriller film co-written and directed by K. V. Anand and produced by Kalpathi S. Aghoram, S. Ganesh, and S. Suresh under the banner of AG ...

'', Harris's "Danga Maari Oodhari", featuring lyrics in North Madras slang become an instant chart-buster. After a hiatus of 6 years, Harris collaborated with

for the action cop film '' Yennai Arindhaal''. The soundtrack received positive reviews from critics and according to Behindwoods, it was the most played album of 2015 in Chennai radio stations.

Live in concert

In 2011, Harris announced his first musical world tour titled "Harris on the Edge". The tour featured live performance of Harris all over the world accompanied by a troupe of Tamil playback singers, including Karthik,

Haricharan Haricharan Seshadri, known mononymously as Haricharan (born 20 March 1987), is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, playback singer, and musician who predominantly works in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada Kannada () is a Dravi ...

, Chinmayi, Tippu, Harini,

Naresh Iyer Naresh Iyer (born 3 January 1981) is an Indian playback singer. Born in Mumbai, Iyer is fluent in Tamil, Hindi and Marathi. Naresh Iyer has rendered 2000 film songs in several Indian languages and has several chart hits to his credit. His r ...

Harish Raghavendra Harish Raghavendra (born 7 December 1976) is an Indian singer who has worked mainly in Tamil films. He is the son of photographer P.V Raghavendran. Harish is best known for his songs like "Hey Azhagiya Theeyee" from '' Minnale'', "Nirpadhuve N ...

, Krish, Aalap Raju, KK,

Benny Dayal Benny Dayal (born 13 May 1984) is a UAE-born Indian playback singer. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi and more languages films. He is a member of the band S5, launched by ...

Andrea Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew. Origin of the name The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός (''andrós''), that re ...

, Suvi Suresh, Sunitha Sarathy, Srilekha Parthasarathy and

Shweta Mohan Shweta Mohan (born 19 November 1985) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs for films and albums in all the four south Indian cinema namely Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada, besides few Hindi films and has established hersel ...

and international musicians and dancers. The event was coordinated by ''Techfront'' and was directed by A. L. Vijay. The tour kick started in Chennai on 8 October 2011, and later continued in Coimbatore on 23 December 2011 and in Dubai on 4 February 2012. The whole tour was covered by Jaya TV.

Studio H

Harris opened a new studio on 8 January 2017, called ''Studio H''. The studio consists of the latest audio recording systems and technology. The first song to be composed in the studio was Halena from Iru Mugan. The S3 soundtrack was the first project entirely composed here.

Guest appearances

* 2011 '' Ko'' - in song 'Aga Naga Naga'

Discography

As a music director

Notes: * • Indicates languages of original release. * ♦ Indicates a film remade in another language with a different cast, retaining Harris as the composer. * # indicates the soundtrack album has one or more bonus songs composed by a different composer. * The movie '' Thotti Jaya'' has an additional track "Indha Ooru" composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja used only in the Tamil version of the movie. It was replaced in Telugu by the song "Ee Calcutta" composed by Harris. * The movie ''Sathyam'' was shot in Telugu as ''Salute''; however, the songs were not reshot. * The movie ''Force'' has four songs composed by Harris. Film scoring is done by Sameer Phatarpekar with some themes having some of their melodies borrowed from the songs. * The movie ''Extra Ordinary Man'' features the song "Pette Thalam", which is a remix of Gururaj 's version of the folk song "Naa Petta Thalam" composed by for ''Manmadha Ravula Kosam'' (2007).

Upcoming

As a lyricist

Music videos

Ad jingles

He composed music for various television commercials including a

commercial featuring Vijay. In 2008, he composed for '' Herova? Zerova?'' ad campaign which Suriya initiated under the Agaram Foundation, working to help children who drop out of school early in

. With the Ministry of Education in Tamil Nadu, he created a short commercial video outlining child poverty, labour and lack of education written and produced by

Sivakumar Palaniswamy Gounder (born 27 October 1941), better known by his stage name Sivakumar, is an Indian visual artist and former actor who has appeared in Tamil cinema and television. He made his acting debut in '' Kaakum Karangal'' (1965) and has ...

and also starred Suriya, Vijay, R. Madhavan and

Personal life

Harris is married to Suma Jayaraj, the couple have a son named Samuel Nicholas Harris and a daughter named Karen Nikitha Harris, born in 2006. Nikitha is a

playback singer A playback singer, as they are usually known in South Asian cinema, or ghost singer in Western cinema, is a singer whose performance is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and the performers lip-sync the ...

who made her debut through the song "Vinnil Vinmeen" for the movie '' Kaappaan'', and won a V4U Media award in 2020."MGR - SIVAJI Cinema Awards 2020 , Best Debut Singer"
.

Vasanth TV Vasanth TV is a Tamil language, Tamil entertainment satellite channel which is owned by Vinoth Vasanthakumar of Vasanth & Co Group. The company has tied up with Tata Communications for providing the uplinking facilities.Telecasted Mobile app T ...

. 22 Feb 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2021.

Awards and nominations

;Special Honours ; Filmfare Awards South ; Tamil Nadu State Film Awards ;

South Indian International Movie Awards The South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA Awards) rewards the artistic and technical achievements of the South Indian film industry. It was launched in 2012 by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Brinda Prasad Adusimilli to appreciate and hono ...

(SIIMA) ; ;

*2008: Won - Best Music Director - ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' *2009: Won - Best Music Director - ''Aadhavan'' *2008: Won - Favorite Song of the Year - "Ava Enna" from ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' *2011: Won - Favorite Song of the Year - " Enamo Aedho" from ''Ko'' *2012: Won - Favorite Song of the Year - " Google Google" from ''Thuppakki'' *2007: Nominated - Best Music Director - ''Unnale Unnale'' *2011: Nominated - Best Music Director - ''Engeyum Kaadhal'' *2012: Nominated - Best Music Director - ''Nanban'' *2011: Nominated - Best Background Score - ''Ko'' *2008: Nominated - Favourite Song of the Year - "Mundhinam" from ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' *2008: Nominated - Favourite Song of the Year - "Nenjukkul" from ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' *2009: Nominated - Favourite Song of the Year - "Hasili Fisili" from ''Aadhavan'' *2009: Nominated - Favourite Song of the Year - "Vizhi Moodi" from ''Ayan'' *2012: Nominated - Favourite Song of the Year - "Venaam Machan" from ''Oru Kal Oru Kannadi'' *2014: Nominated - Favourite Song of the Year - "Aathangara Orathil" from ''Yaan'' ; Vijay Music Awards *2011: Won - Best Music Director - ''Engeyum Kaadhal'' *2011: Won - Popular Song of the Year - " Enamo Aedho" from ''Ko'' *2011: Won - Best Western Song - "Nangaai" from ''Engeyum Kaadhal'' ; International Tamil Film Awards (ITFA) *2003: Won - Best Music Director - ''Kaakha Kaakha'' *2005: Won - Best Music Director - ''Ghajini'' *2008: Won - Best Music Director - ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' ; Mirchi Music Awards South *2009: Won - Best Album of the Year - ''Ayan'' *2009: Won - Mirchi Listeners' Choice for Best Album - ''Ayan'' *2010: Won - Best Album of the Year - ''Orange'' *2010: Won - Mirchi Listeners' Choice for Best Album - ''Orange'' *2010: Won - Mirchi Listeners' Choice for Best Song - "Nenu Nuvvantu" from ''Orange'' Mirchi Music Awards South#Jury awards *2011: Won - Best Song of the Year - "Enamo Aedho" from ''Ko'' ;

Edison Awards Edison Awards is an American company that runs an annual competition honoring excellence in innovation in a broad range of categories. Company The Edison Awards were established by the American Marketing Association in 1987 and has been an i ...

*2009: Won - Best Music Director - ''Ayan'' *2011: Won - Best Music Director - ''Ko'' *2015: Won - Favourite Song of the Year - "Danga Maari" from ''Anegan'' *2015: Nominated - Best Music Director - ''Anegan'' ;MGR Sivaji Cinema Awards *2019 - Best Music Director - ''Kaappaan'' *2019 - Mellisai Mannar M.S.Viswanathan Award ;Isaiaruvi Tamil Music Awards *2007 - Best Youthful Album of the Year - ''Unnale Unnale'' *2007 - Most Listened Song of the Year - "June Ponal" from ''Unnale Unnale'' *2008 - Best Romantic Song of the Year - "Anbe En Anbe" from ''Dhaam Dhoom'' *2008 - Best Album of the Year - ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' *2008 - Best Music Director - ''Vaaranam Aayiram'' *2009 - Best Romantic Song of the Year - "Vizhi Moodi Yosithal" from ''Ayan'' *2009 - Best Album of the Year - ''Aadhavan'' *2009 - Best Music Director of the Year - ''Aadhavan'' ;Big FM Awards *2010 - Best Music Director - ''Orange'' ; Big Tamil Melody Awards *2011 - Best Music Director - ''Engeyum Kaadhal'' *2011 - Best Album of the Year - ''Engeyum Kaadhal'' *2012 - Best Music Director - ''Nanban'' ;Chennai Times Film Awards *2011 - Best Music Director - ''Ko'' ;Maa Music Awards *2011 - Best Dubbing Song - "Enduko Emo" from ''Ko'' ;South Scope Awards *2008 - Most Stylish Music Director - ''Dhaam Dhoom'' *2009 - Best Music Director - ''Ayan'' ;

Stardust Awards The Stardust Awards was an award ceremony for Hindi movies, which was sponsored by '' Stardust'' magazine. Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they won. The first ceremony was held in 2004 for films released in 2003. The ...

*2011: Nominated - Standout Performance by a Music Director - ''Force''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jayaraj, Harris 1975 births Living people Tamil film score composers Alumni of Trinity College of Music Tamil musicians Telugu film score composers Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners Filmfare Awards South winners Recipients of the Kalaimamani Award Musicians from Chennai Indian Tamil people Indian Christians Musicians from Tamil Nadu Jingle composers Indian male film score composers 21st-century Indian composers