Rahul Raj

Rahul Raj is an Indian music composer.

He has composed and produced scores and soundtracks predominantly for Malayalam movies.

He is an alumnus of the prestigious Berklee College of Music and holds a postgraduate degree in scoring for films, TV and video games.

Rahul Raj was born in Kochi to Advocate E. Thankappan and N. S. Kunjoonjamma.

His schooling was in Bhavans Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara Cochin.

He has one sister, Rehna Raj.

From the age of 6, he was trained in Mridangam and Carnatic Music.

He graduated as an IT Engineer from CUSAT, Cochin and later on pursued courses such as CCNP and CCIE in Bangalore ILloka networks, before moving to London.

During his stint in London, he underwent training in Electronic Sound Production.

He helped Pradeep Menon, a UK-based Indian businessman, remix a Tamil Ayappa record that was originally produced, composed and sung by Pradeep Menon and Shashi Kumar in 1985.

The devotional album produced in the UK, Canada and India is titled Sabari Beats.

It was released in November 2002 by Super recording in Tamil Nadu.

Noted musicians like Pravin Mani, Saroja, and Kamalakar were featured.

This launched Rahul Raj's career.

He also arranged another song for Pradeep Menon called "Krishna Krishna" with percussionist Sivamani and James Asher from United Kingdom.

On returning to India, Rahul composed more than 100 jingles for commercials in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.

During this period, he had also composed original themes for many television productions, including shows for Asianet and Amrita TV.

In 2003, he composed the anthem Lokaha Samastha for Amma's 50th birth anniversary, Amrithavarsam 50, which was later used as the theme song for Amrita TV.

He composed Malayalam albums during the period, which include En Jeevane (Pularmanju pole), which was shot completely in the United States by producer–director Tom George Kolath.

The song "Pularmanjupol Nee" from the album, rendered by Karthik and Sujatha, became an evergreen hit.

He was given the opportunity to compose the logo theme music for the show 50 Years of Malayalam Film Music with Padma Bhusan Dr. K. J. Yesudas.

His first feature film score and soundtrack were for Chotta Mumbai, directed by Anwar Rasheed and starring Mohanlal in the lead.

His second release was Suresh Gopi's Time directed by Shaji Kailas.

Shankar Mahadevan sang in one of his compositions for Chotta Mumbai.

In 2008, he replaced the trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy as the composer of the Malayalam feature film Maya Bazar, in which he worked with the Tamil film production company Ayngaran International.

In the same year, he became the first music composer in Malayalam movie industry to have a registered fans' association, called RRFA (Rahul Raj Fans Association), based in Thiruvananthapuram.

In 2009, he composed for filmmaker Shyamaprasad's Ritu, for which he subsequently won the Vayalar Award.

The award was given by a jury of old school musicians including K.P. Udayabhanu.

In 2010, he won the Kerala State Award for Best Background Score for Ritu.

The same year, he was invited to University at Buffalo, The State University of New York to rework and expand Pomp and Circumstance Marches, the traditional convocation music used by them, composed by Sir Edward Elgar.

In addition to expanding Edward Elgar's piece, he composed two original music pieces for the convocation, Dance of the Gods and The Circumstance by Rahul Raj.

In the same year he signed a project called Mathilukalkkapuram, a sequel to Adoor Gopalakrishnan's classic Mathilukal.

The Mammootty starrer which also had Ravi K. Chandran and Resul Pookutty on board as cinematographer and sound designer respectively was subsequently shelved.

His only release in 2010 was Chekavar which tanked at the box-office, with the music too not appealing to the masses.

Later in the year he was approached to score The Thriller which he declined.

He was also approached to score two other films which were 2011 releases, Doubles and China Town both of which he rejected citing time constraints.

In 2011, Rahul Raj made his debut in Telugu cinema by composing music for the Siddharth – Shruti Haasan starrer Oh My Friend.

The audio of the film opened to overwhelming responses and rave reviews, climbing to the No. 1 position in Telugu music charts, with the song "Maa Daddy Pockets" in particular becoming a rage among the youth.

The audio went on to mark record sales of 3 lakh CDs within nine days of release.

After almost a two-year hiatus, in 2012 he returned to the Malayalam industry by scoring for Amal Neerad's Bachelor Party.