Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990)[1] is an Indian film composer and singer, who works predominantly in Tamil films. The song, "Why This Kolaveri Di", that Anirudh had composed for the Tamil film 3, went viral on YouTube.
Anirudh made his debut as music composer in his cousin Aishwarya R. Dhanush's directorial debut 3 starring Dhanush and Shruti Haasan. While pursuing his degree at Loyola College, he had done background scores for about short films by Aishwaryaa and was convinced by her to also work on her first commercial venture.[7] Furthermore, at the launch of the film in August 2011, Anirudh revealed that he had played the keyboard for compositions by A. R. Rahman and was a part of a band called Zinx.[8] In early November 2011, a leaked version of a song from the film, "Why This Kolaveri Di" circulated online and the film's team decided to subsequently release it officially on 16 November 2011 with a music video shot featuring Dhanush singing the song at AM studios, accompanied by composer Anirudh on a keyboard. It instantly became viral on social networking sites for its quirky "Tanglish" (portmanteau word of Tamil and English) lyrics.[9] Soon, the song became the most searched YouTube video in India and an internet phenomenon across Asia.[10][11][12][13] Within a few weeks, YouTube honoured the video with a '"Recently Most Popular" Gold Medal award and "Trending" silver medal award for receiving a large number of hits in a short time.[14][15] The song was built around a South Indian folk rhythm. Its instrumentation consists of nadaswaram, shehnai, saxophone, urumee and thavil drums, acoustic guitar, and keyboards mixed with electronic synths and scratches. The vocals utilize the singing style of Tamil folk culture. Lyrically, the song revolves around the film's main actor being dumped by his girlfriend; the song is sung by the character in a drunken state, with many of the lines nonsensical. According to composer, 3's director Aishwarya R. Dhanush wanted a light-hearted song about failed love. Ravichander quickly composed the tune in about 10 minutes.[13] Dhanush then began work on the lyrics, which he completed in about 20 minutes of playful singing and writing.[16]
The remaining songs of the album were released in December 2011 and also won very positive reviews from critics. The album featured Mohit Chauhan debuting in Tamil with "Po Nee Po", while Dhanush, Shruti Haasan and Airtel Super Singer contestant Sathya Prakash were also amongst the performers. A reviewer from Behindwoods.com noted "Anirudh Ravichander has delivered so much variety in his very first album. Such a promising debut by a composer hasn't been seen in recent Tamil cinema history", while Rediff.com's reviewer noted that "all the songs in 3 are good and come with appealing instrumental arrangements", concluding that it was "an intriguing collection."[17][18] Anirudh also received praise for his background score in the film. He consequently went on to gain recognition for the film through accolades, notably the Vijay Award for Best Find of the Year as well as nominations at the South Indian International Movie Awards and the 60th Filmfare Awards South.[19] He also worked on the Telugu and Hindi version of the film with Adnan Sami and Vishal Dadlani singing as a part of the album, though the dubbed Hindi film never released.[20] Anirudh teamed up with Dhanush soon after to produce a Kolaveri-inspired track titled "Sachin anthem" commemorating Sachin Tendulkar in association with health drink, Boost
