Harris Jayaraj


Harris Jayaraj is an Indian film composer from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Telugu and two films in Hindi. Since 2001, he has won 6 Filmfare Awards South and has received 20 Filmfare Awards South nominations. He has also won 6 Mirchi Music Awards, 5 Vijay Awards, 3 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, 3 International Tamil Film Awards and Big FM Awards. He has been honoured with Kalaimamani Award from the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Life Time Achievement Award from Konijeti Rosaiah, the Governor of Tamil Nadu. 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 brought up in Chennai. He was born into a middle class Tamil Christian family. He studied at Krishnaswamy Matric School. His father, S. M. Jayakumar, was a noted film guitarist and an assistant to Malayalam music director Shyam and later became a noted musician and film composer. At age six, Harris began his formal training in carnatic music. His father wanted him to become a guitarist and made him learn classical guitar from Mr.A.Abdul Sattar. Harris scored the highest mark in Asia on his 4th grade exam of Trinity College of Music, London.
He started his music career as a guitarist in 1987 at age twelve. He started playing keyboard and developed interest over synthesizers. He then started programming with his Roland MC-500 and went on to work as a programmer under more than twenty five music directors in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam, working in more than 600 projects till the year 2000. He worked under noted composers including Raj-Koti, A. R. Rahman, Sadhu Kokila, Mani Sharma, Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Vidyasagar. While working as an additional programmer under Rahman, he composed music for various television commercials including a Coca-Cola commercial featuring actor Vijay. In his early years, he admired music composers M. S. Viswanathan, A. R. Rahman and Hans Zimmer.

Film career

Harris debuted as a film composer with Gautham Menon's Minnale. The album was well received, particularly the song Vaseegara was exceptionally popular. He received the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil 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 Hindi 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. 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 with Vasu. 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. This film directed by Gautham Menon 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. 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 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, 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. 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 Tollywood 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. With the following album Bheema, Harris continued his mettle with all the six songs. The track Siru Parvaiyalae used Pashto 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's 24, which was to star Vikram. He was also signed in for the Malayalam film Yoddha 2, starring Mohanlal. But both films were subsequently shelved.
In Anegan, 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 Gautham Vasudev Menon 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, Chinmayi, Tippu, Harini, Naresh Iyer, Harish Raghavendra, Krish, Aalap Raju, KK, Benny Dayal, Andrea, Suvi Suresh, Sunitha Sarathy, Srilekha Parthasarathy and Shweta Mohan and international musicians and dancers. The event was coordinated by Techfront and was directed by A. L. Vijay. 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 entirely composed in this studio and all his future projects will be completed in "Studio H" as well.

Guest appearances

YearTamilOther LanguagesDubbed ReleasesNotes
2001Minnale •Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein ♦ Cheli Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil
2001Majunu •Majnu
200112B •12B, Do Raaste
2002Vasu • Vetri
2002Samurai •Samurai, Samurai: Ek Yoddha
2003Lesa Lesa •Koddiga Koddiga
2003Saamy •Swamy IPS, Policewala Gunda 3
2003Kovil •Rudhrudu
2003Kaakha Kaakha•Gharshana ♦
Force ♦# 		Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil
Tamil Nadu Award for Best Music Director
ITFA Award for Best Music Director
2004Chellamae •Prema Chadarangam
2004Arasatchi •Judgement, Ghatak: The Destroyer
2004Arul •Akhandudu, Main Balwaan
2005Thotti Jaya •#Jalakanta
2005Ullam Ketkumae •Preminchi Chudu
2005Anniyan •Aparichithudu, Aparichit Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil
Tamil Nadu Award for Best Music Director
2005Ghajini •Ghajini Filmfare Special Award - South
Tamil Nadu Award for Best Music Director
ITFA Award for Best Music Director
2006Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu •Raghavan, The Smart Hunt
2006Sainikudu • Kumaran, Ab Humse Na Takrana
2007Pachaikili Muthucharam •Dhrohi
2007Unnale Unnale •Neevalle Neevalle
2007Munna • Vetri Thirumagan , Bagawat: Ek Jung
2008Bheemaa •Bheema, Vachanbadh
2008Sathyam •Salute , Return of Khakee 25th Film
2008Dhaam Dhoom •Rakshakudu
2008Vaaranam Aayiram •Surya S/O Krishnan
Suriya Ka Yaarana 		Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil
Vijay Award for Best Music Director
ITFA Award for Best Music Director
2009Ayan •Veedokkade, Vidhwanshak: The Destroyer Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil
Mirchi Music Award for Best Album – Tamil
Edison Award for Best Music Director
2009Aadhavan •Ghatikudu, Dildaar: The Arya Vijay Award for Best Music Director
2010Orange • Ramcharan, Ram Ki Jung Mirchi Music Award for Best Album – Telugu
2010Engeyum Kadhal •Ninnu Chooste Love Vastundi Vijay Music Award for Best Music Director
2011Ko •Rangam, The Real Leader Tamil Nadu Award for Best Music Director
Edison Award for Best Music Director
20117aum Arivu •Seventh Sense, Chennai v/s China
2012Nanban •Snehithudu
2012Oru Kal Oru Kannadi •Ok Ok
2012Maattrraan •Brothers, No.1 Judwaa: The Unbreakable
2012Thuppakki •Thuppakki, Indian Soldier: Never On Holiday SIIMA Award for Best Music Director – Tamil
2013Irandaam Ulagam #Varna
2013Endrendrum Punnagai •Chirunavvula Chirujallu
2014Idhu Kathirvelan Kadhal •Seenu Gaadi Love Story
2014Yaan •Nene, Jaan Ki Baazi
2015Yennai Arindhaal •Yentha Vaadu Gaanie, Satyadev IPS, Satyadev: The Fearless Cop
2015Anegan •Anekudu, Anek
2015Nannbenda •Good Evening
2016Gethu •
2016Iru Mugan •Inkokkadu, International Rowdy
2017S3 •Yamudu 3, Suriya S3
2017Vanamagan •Tarzan: The Heman 50th Film
2017Spyder •Spyder •,Spyder, Spyder
2019Dev •Dev
2019KaappaanBandobast
2020Dhruva NatchathiramDelayed
2020Production No. 1Filming

Notes:
He composed music for various television commercials including a Coca-Cola 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 Tamil Nadu. With the Ministry of Education in Tamil Nadu, he created a short commercial video outlining child poverty, labour and lack of education, titled Herova? Zerova?. The film was written and produced by Sivakumar and also starred Suriya, Vijay, R. Madhavan and Jyothika.

Personal life

Harris is married to Joyce, the couple have a son named Samuel Nicholas and a daughter named Karen Nikita, who made a cameo in Kaappaan.

Awards and nominations

;Special Honours
;Filmfare Awards South
;Tamil Nadu State Film Awards
;Vijay Awards
;Vijay Music Awards
;International Tamil Film Awards
;Mirchi Music Awards South
;Edison Awards
;South Indian International Movie Awards
;MGR Sivaji Cinema Awards
;Isaiaruvi Tamil Music Awards
;Big FM Awards
; Big Tamil Melody Awards
;Chennai Times Film Awards
;South Scope Awards
;Stardust Awards