Karen Nikitha Harris

Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian 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.

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.

He started his music career as a guitarist in 1987 at age twelve under M. S. Viswanathan's assistant Joseph Krishna.

Harris could pursue his academics only up to High School, by then he always had problem with his attendance due to his recording sessions.

Having been trained in classical guitar, Harris completed Grade VIII exams conducted by the Trinity College, London.

Later he started playing keyboard and developed interest over synthesizers.

For this there was no tutor.

Between 1987 and 2000, he worked under noted composers including Raj–Koti, A. R. Rahman, Sadhu Kokila, Mani Sharma, Karthik Raja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Sirpi, Suresh Peters, Chandrabose, Shyam, Ouseppachan, Adithyan and Vidyasagar.

In his early years as a musician, Harris have worked in movie soundtracks and film scores of various popular movies including Mudhalvan, Taj Mahal, Jeans, Kandukondain Kandukondain, Ullasam, Poovellam Kettuppar, Muthu, Padayappa, Ratchagan, Aravindhan, Indian, Seevalaperi Pandi and Asuran.

While working as an additional programmer under A. R. 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, Ennio Morricone, A. R. Rahman, Salil Chowdhury, and Hans Zimmer.

Harris debuted as a composer with Gautham Vasudev Menon's Minnale.

The album was well received, particularly the song Vaseegara sung by Bombay Jayashri 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 Vasudev 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.

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 Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Punjabi and Oriya working in more than 600 projects till the year 2000.

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, 4 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, 3 International Tamil Film Awards and Big FM Awards.

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.

Harris Jayaraj was born and brought up in Chennai in a Christian family.

His father hails from a Tamil Christian family and his mother from a Hindu Naidu family.

He studied at Krishnaswamy Matric School.

At age six, Harris began his formal training in carnatic music.

His father, S. M. Jayakumar, was a noted film guitarist and have frequently colabrated with T. M. Soundararajan, A. L. Raghavan, M.S.Viswanathan, Soolamangalam Sisters, K. J. Yesudas, S. Janaki, Shankar Ganesh, S.P.Balasubramaniam, K. V. Mahadevan, Malaysia Vasudevan, L. R. Eswari, Jikki, K. Jamuna Rani, P.Susheela and Malayalam music director Shyam.

Following two distressing bomb blast incidents he became more religiously inclined and young Harris had to take over the family responsibility.

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.