Confirmed: Dhanush Will Play Ilaiyaraaja In Arun Matheswaran Helmed Biopic; Film's First Poster Out

Dhanush, who had once shared that he wanted to star in the biopics of music maestro Ilaiyaraaja and superstar Rajinikanth, recently announced that he will be starring in the National-award winning music composer's biographical drama, helmed by Arun Matheswaran. Attentively titled Ilaiyaraaja, this film would be the second collaboration between Dhanush and Matheswaran after Captain Miller. 

Dhanush to star as music maestro Ilaiyaraaja

Taking to his X handle, Dhanush shared a retro-style poster in which he can be seen standing in the middle of a street with a harmonium on his shoulder. As he will be stepping into the shoes of the legendary singer, the actor wrote "honoured" in the caption. The text on the poster read, "Dhanush as Ilaiyaraaja" and added, "The King of Music". 

The musical drama will be helmed by Arun Matheswaran and chronicle Ilaiyaraaja's remarkable journey to attaining musical success. Multiple media reports suggest the makers have started shooting the film which is slated to release in 2025. The official title of the film is yet to be announced.

Who is Ilaiyaraaja?

Ilaiyaraaja started his musical career in the industry by assisting Kannada film composer G. K. Venkatesh. During this period, Ilaiyaraaja also began writing his own scores and in 1976 a producer offered him his first film Annakkili to sing. 

With an evergreen career spanning five decades, Ilaiyaraaja composed over 7,000 soul-stirring pieces featured in more than 1,000 films. He also received prestigious civilian honours such as the Padma Bhushan in 2010 and Padma Vibhushan in 2018. He is nicknamed Isaignani (the musical sage) and often referred to as Maestro, the title conferred by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London. He is also one of the earliest Indian film composers to use Western classical music harmonies and string arrangements in Indian film music.

Ilaiyaraaja, which will be released in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi, is backed by Connekkt Media, PK Prime Production and Mercuri Movies. Sriram Bakthisaran, C K Padma Kumar, Varun Mathur, Ilamparithy Gajendran and Saurabh Mishra are credited as producers. Nirav Shah will serve as the director of photography.

Besides Ilaiyaraaja, Dhanush will be also seen in Raayan, which he has written and directed, as well as filmmaker Sekhar Kammula's Kubera, co-starring Nagarjuna, Rashmika Mandanna and Jim Sarbh.