Ilaiyaraja's 1000 Movies - A Celebration!

[RR]

Hi IR fans and all,

First of all, congratulations! A great achievement indeed.

Common on friends, this calls for special celebrations..!! Pls join me in reminiscing, sharing nostalgia, or just posting your alltime favorites.

As a background and introduction, I'm including the article posted by rajsekar a few days ago in IR News thread..

This is a great news!!!

I was expecting Maestro to cross this milestone sometime this year but wasn't sure about the exact number. Does it inlcude all his Film and non-film soundtracks/ original scores and music albums? He has certainly crossed 1000 if you count the movie sountracks which were never released. What a fantastic milestone and achievement!!!. Maestro needs hundred more soundtracks to equal MSV's crown of 1100 (near approximation based on media reports). The Tamil Film Music Director Association should also maintain the soundtrack numbers for all their members. Do we know the number of Platinum, Golden and Silver Jubilee hits each of MSV and Ilayaraaja? Maestro's 1000 albums have seen many mega hits with few of the movies running countinously for more than 365 days/52 weeks. Platinum Jubilee is 75 weeks continuous running. People would come just to hear the song sequences and exit the theatre after that.

Coming to Raaja's music album sales, do we know how many soundtracks/ albums were Diamond and Platinum? This include sales of all Vinyl records, Cassettes, CDs and digital download streams. The music distribution is India is plagued by so many illegal distributions by phantom companies besides internet piracy which make it difficult to put an exact count of soundtrack sales. For a long time, Maestro had distributed his soundtracks through his own company "Echo" which was also an issue with AVM Audio for AVM Production. Soundtrack royalty brings lot more revenue in the long term as compared to album sales. In US, Diamond album is 10 Million and Platinum is 1 Million while in UK the Platinum is 300,000. As a perspective, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" holds the record for the maximum number of Platinum soundtrack (27 Million). This record is maintained by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Few of the Maestro's biggest soundtrack hits like "Karagatakaran", "Nizhalgal", "Jhonny", "Priya", "Thevar Magan" (I need more space to list all the mega hits) would have sold more than 30 to 50 lakhs each which is 3 to 5 million. Unfortunately there is no official sales numbers from Echo or Maestro's fans. The best selling Indian film album (official record) is Aashiqui with 15 Million units (150 Lakhs). Rahman's "Bombay" combined soundtrack sales in Hindi and Tamil was 12 Million (120 Lakhs) which is his highest
record. Ilayaraaja has certainly smashed these records but we don't have any official confirmation of music sales. This is a sad state of affairs in India. I sincerely hope that Maestro's fans would work on tabulating the official sales number for all his albums and the eaxct count of film/ non-film albums. Maestro himself keeps an accurate count of all his soundtracks as seen from a recent audio release (don't recall the movie name)

Putting Maestro's 1000th album in perspective, here are some numbers for notable music directors (not official and only approximate numbers):
- Chakravarthy - 960+
- KV Mahadevan is 600
- Bappi Lahiri - 500
- RD Burman - 331+
- G Devarajan - 300
- Jerry Amaldev - 300
- Lakshmikant-Pyarelal - 250+
- Shyam - 300+
- Rahman - 200+
- Kalyanji Anandji - 200+
- V Dakshinamoorthy - 125+
- Shankar Jaikishan - 171
- Hemant Kumar - 138
- Naushad - 100 (maximum number of Platinum, Golden and Silver Jubilee hits)
- Yuvan Shankar - 100+

[mappi]

Me, Music and the Raja

... comming soon ...

[krish244]

Heart felt CONGRATULATIONS to IR! It is a wonderful feeling and very proud because of the fact that no music has impacted (at all levels, be it just listening/enjoying, sharing, analyzing etc.) me as much as much as his music has. Wish him (and us) of more magic/mesmerizing music to come!

thanks,

Krishnan

P.S.: Of late, I have been very very very lazy that my posts have reduced :), but this post needed to be here.

[krish244]

Also, it will be informative to list his 100th, 200th, 300th, etc movie titles. As far as I remember, Nayagan is his 400th, Anjali is his 500th movie (i remember the casette mentioned it was 500th movie).

Was the movie "Raghavendra" a milestone as well?

thanks,

Krishnan

[suivipa]

Krish244
you got it right with 400 and 500 and the movie names.
I vaguely remember reading some where that Rajaparvai was also a milestone number could be 200 given that between 1976 and 1981 he accomplished the 200 mark.

On a side note , don't be dis heartened that the response has been slow till now with this thread.
I wish that your thread will reach highest recognition and returning users and that will turn out as a new milestone in tfm.

M Bala

[rajsekar]

RR - Thanks for creating a separate thread. I started to look at the Maestro's milestone movies and I am just half way through. I was expecting to see some official database (Film association, Music Director's Union, etc.) containing this information. Karthik Raja should collect the accurate data and upload to Raaja.com which is the official website. It's a sad state of affairs that Maestro's official website is not even up and running. We live in a media frenzy world and his children can at least get these basic music sites checked and updated regularly. His major milestone movies are listed below. I believe the specific milestone is hit when the actual soundtrack was recorded by Maestro and not the movie release date. Dubbed films are counted as separate milestone because the sound track is recorded for the second time with new playback singers and orchestration.

100th - Moodupani (1980)
200th - Bhagavathipuram Railway Gate (1983)
300th - Udhaya Geetham (1985)
400th - Nayagan (1987)
500th - Anjali (1990)
600th - ???
700th - ???
800th - ???
900th - ???
1000th - Tarai Thappattai (2014)

[mappi]

Did some deep digging in the forum, being sure to find something, and as usual was well rewarded :

Posted by VS

100 - Moodupani (1980)
200 - Aayiram Nilave Vaa (1983)
300 - Udaya Geetham (1985)
400 - Nayagan (1987)
500 - Anjali (1990)
600 - Devar Magan (1992)
[B]700 - Ejamaan (1993) [doubtful]
800 - Ramanaa (2002) [doubtful]
Paa (2009) was his 882nd film as mentioned by him
900 - Sengathu boomiyile (2012)
999 - Oru Orule (2014)
1000 - Tarai Thappattai (2014)

Source : http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?8722-Maestro-ilaiyaraaja-news-amp-titbits-1000-movies-milestone/page177

[teja]

>900 - Sengathu boomiyile (2012)

That may not be correct. SriRamaRajyam (Telugu version) released in 2011 is his 911th film, according to its producer. So, he crossed 900 in 2011 itself.

[rajsekar]

Some more analytics here:
908th Film (name unknown) - officially mentioned by Maestro during AK audio launch in March, 2011
- First formal audio release for a movie soundtrack/ album was 16 Vayathinile in 1977 (I think Satyam Theatre)
- All his movie soundtrack and background score were completed in maximum three days time (stated by Maestro). Three days for background score is an incredible feat when compared to his peers like John Williams. John takes somewhere between 3-4 months to create, write, compose and record a complete background score and soundtrack for a movie.

[mappi]

OK
I almost have all Tamil movie songs of IR till Virumandi. The past decade, I just have them scattered in different formats. I can first build up the movie names chronologically till 2004, sorting them by the year of their release, so that we can zero it down when it comes to a mile stone number. But, I have few of IR other language movies/songs. Think I will skip them from the list for the time being.

Once the list is complete I can post it here. Now comes the important part, someone or many hands should verify and recheck them to get us somewhere near to accurate. This would take a while for me to come up with the 1st version of the list, let me try to be quick (reviews can wait).

[Russellhaj]

நூறு படங்கள் ஓவ்வொரு இரண்டு வருட இடைவெளியில் .....இன்னும் ஒரு நூறு ஆண்டுகள் நீ வாழ வேண்டும்.!!!

[suivipa]

Also I remember that recently Maestro mentioned that it was the 969th movie at one of the functions about 4 months ago.
If I have to recall it should be either at Onnayum aattukuttiyum OST release or BM last contribution Thalaimuraigal???? Both these were purely RR/BGS and both were made for very little pennies over a dollar cost to the respective producers.
After that we probably have 20 odd moves including the ones signed on dotted across 5 languages that he is working. There are some unreleased ones like Megha, Naadi Thudikkuthadi, Happi (Hindi), and couple others that should be prior to the 969# we are referencing right now.

still he is very close to the 1000th mark on the yardstick. I think they like to have publicity calling it 1000th movie to create "hype" which is understandable . we don't have maestro's PR covering these important milestones. btw where is this character nikil Murugan? he is supposed to be working on such aspects considering he is Sangili Murugans son a very close aide of IR.

still I would love to celebrate this mega feat since he would be probably the last composer to accomplish such a milestone. He is a genius and rare phenomena in the music domain.

[albionTub]

The Legend MSV is missing in the list....
Hi IR fans and all,

First of all, congratulations! A great achievement indeed.

Common on friends, this calls for special celebrations..!! Pls join me in reminiscing, sharing nostalgia, or just posting your alltime favorites.

As a background and introduction, I'm including the article posted by rajsekar a few days ago in IR News thread..

[rajsekar]

Suresh - Mellisai Mannar is still the reigning King. MSV is mentioned in the first para "Maestro needs hundred more soundtracks to equal MSV's crown of 1100 (near approximation based on media reports). I have updated the Music Director's list who have crossed the century mark - added Hamsalekha, Deva, Keeravani, Vidyasagar, Johnson. Please update the list if I may have left out anyone. There are few notable MD's in the 75+ club (Himesh Reshammiya, Raj-Koti, D Imman, G Ramesh Naidu, SA Rajkumar).

- MSV - 1100
- Chakravarthy - 960+
- KV Mahadevan is 600
- Bappi Lahiri - 500
- Deva - 400+
- RD Burman - 331+
- G Devarajan - 300
- Jerry Amaldev - 300
- Johnson - 300+
- Hamsalekha - 300+
- Shyam - 300+
- Lakshmikant-Pyarelal - 250+
- Vidyasagar - 250+
- Rahman - 200+
- Kalyanji Anandji - 200+
- Shankar Jaikishan - 171
- Hemant Kumar - 138
- MM Keeravani - 140
- V Dakshinamoorthy - 125+
- Naushad - 100 (maximum number of Platinum, Golden and Silver Jubilee hits)
- Yuvan Shankar - 100+

[mappi]

I have managed to list out films worked by IR from 1977 - 2014 :

- 2014 does not include Bala' s and Mahendran's movies but only Oru Orla & Un Samayal Araiyil
- Eliminated all dubbed versions
- Included "only BGM" works also [like OA, few Kanada movies etc.,]
- Excluded vareity albums (eventhough Veedu uses How to Name it ]
- Other Languages like Bhojpuri or Bengali not included as I don't know or have them
- Excluded "Not released" or "Yet to Release" movies.

Think I have got closer than expected, but cannot pin point the mile stones as most of the release dates are not known or very tedious to collect.
Here is the summary :

8 Hindi
30 Kanada
77 Malayalam
742 Tamil
140 Telugu

Making it a 997 OST of films ! just missing 2 ...

Anyone interested, I can share the 1st version of the list.
For the landmark film, the year of the film falls exactly inside it, but conclusions may vary as we need Release Dates in our data.

Voilà !

[RR]

mappi,

that's a neat piece of work. I'm curious to take a look. why don't you post the file as an attachment so that interested can download? Tks..

[mappi]

Attachment : Master List of Maestro_V1.zip

[RR]

mappi,

I can run it thru my sources to fill up the gaps - if it's ok with you..

[mappi]

Ofcourse RR, you are more than welcome. If we are able to find the release dates & correct (my) errors in the list, we can bringout the milestone films. I am going to take time in a steady basis to evolve this list :

V1 - Film / year / release date
V2 - V1 + director / casts / Label / Banner
V3 - V2 + songs / singers for each film
V4 - V3 + Ragas

Just an humble request, if the file undergoes any modification, please rename it as 'V1.x' respectively, as we all can follow the current version.

[SVN]

Mappi, superb work. Thanks.

Sadma is not a dubbed film, as you've stated. It was remade with an entirely new cast, except the lead actors. Perhaps a few of the Tamil visuals may have been retained (Somayajulu's scenes at the 'ashram'), but largely it remains a remake.

Remember Gulshan Grover as the baddie and Viju Khote as the policeman?

[sudhakarg]

@mappi. Super effort indeed. My 2 cents on "milestone films", the two I distinctly remember are:

#250 - naan paadum paadal
#350 - amman kovil kizhakkaalE

[irir123]

http://www.iflicks.in/News/2014/10/24174853/Ilayaraja-completes-his-1000th-film.vpf