Legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja opined that film directors need not have complete knowledge of music or music creation. Having worked in the film industry for more than five decades, Ilaiyaraaja’s body of work is unparalleled and directors don’t even question his choices once he comes up with a tune. Such is his authority over music and composing music for films.
In a recent interview when he was asked if directors should understand music, Ilaiyaraaja replied, “Why should they? A director should concentrate on his storyline and characters. They needn’t know the process of music creation.” He also opined that quite a few times, when music directors visualise a song and compose music, they are almost like directing a film.
Of late, he is busy working on a couple of Tamil films, a Malayalam and a Marathi film. The ace music composer is also in the process of finalizing a world tour.