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Santhosh Narayanan
Narayanan at the premiere ofKadugu
Background information
Born	(1983-05-15)15 May 1983 (age 42) Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
Genres	Film score Jazz Indian folk Hip hop Rock Electronic
Occupations	Composer music producer arranger singer music director
Instruments	vocals, piano, flute, keyboard, trumpet
Years active	2012–present

Santhosh Narayanan (born 15 May 1983) is an Indian film composer, music producer and singer, primarily active inTamil cinema, also having composed for notableTelugu andMalayalam films. Narayanan made his debut as an independent composer with the 2012 filmAttakathi, directed byPa. Ranjith. His further collaborations with directors Pa. Ranjith,Karthik Subbaraj, andMari Selvaraj have resulted in celebrated scores for films such asPizza (2012),Jigarthanda (2014),Kabali (2016),Vada Chennai (2018),Pariyerum Perumal (2018),Sarpatta Parambarai (2021), andKarnan (2021). Narayanan is considered a prominent figure in contemporary South Indian film music.

Santhosh Narayanan was born inTiruchirappalli, India. He is the younger of two children. He was educated atRSK Higher Secondary School, Tiruchirappalli. Santhosh Narayanan completed hisBachelor of Engineering inComputer Science at J. J. College of Engineering and Technology, Tiruchirappalli.

After completing his education, he worked as arecording engineer, arranger and programmer, before beginning to produce independent music and compose for films.^[1] He composed the music including two original songs for the Telugu short filmAdvaitham,^[2][3] He was also part of the contemporary folk music band "La Pongal" in which he performed in a few live shows in 2009.^[1]

ThroughMani Ratnam, Santhosh also got to work on a couple ofA. R. Rahman soundtracks starting withGuru (2007).^[4]

He made his debut as an independent music director in the 2012 Tamil filmAttakathi directed byPa. Ranjith. He got the opportunity through its producerC. V. Kumar who saw him working in his studio.^[5] Santhosh composed a song in theGaana genre for the film, "Aadi Pona Aavani", and gave a then-unknownGana Bala, who had been singing gaana songs at funerals until then, the chance to sing it. Along with "Aadi Pona Aavani", a second gaana song, "Nadukadalula Kappala" was recorded for the film.^[6][7] Both songs went on to become popular, making Gana Bala a star, and were said to have brought back gaana to Tamil cinema.^[8]Sify wrote that the gaana songs were "one of the major highlight of the film"^[9] and Behindwoods called theAttakathi album an "experimental yet fresh attempt".^[10] FollowingAttakathi, he composed the music for the filmsUyir Mozhi andPizza, the directorial debuts of Raja andKarthik Subbaraj, respectively. All three albums,Attakathi,Uyir Mozhi andPizza were recorded and mastered by Leon Zervos atStudios 301 in Sydney Australia;^[11][12] furthermore, theSydney Symphony Orchestra had performed for the soundtrack ofPizza,^[12] which also saw Santhosh collaborating with Gana Bala again, albeit on aBlues number this time.^[5] ForUyir Mozhi, some of the songs Santhosh had scored for a private album were used by the director.^[13] Santhosh's work inPizza was positively reviewed. According toSify, Santhosh Narayanan's music was a "major plus" of the film,^[14] andIBN Live described the score as "splendid".^[15] The song "Mogathirai" from the soundtrack album was also listed by Indiaglitz.com in their Top songs from 2012 list.^[16] Behindwoods at the end of 2012 wrote, "Santosh Narayanan brought a different sound to Tamil cinema this year. Even his gaana tracks inAttakathi were freshly produced and the soundtrack ofPizza was eclectic to say the least".^[17] He also won accolades that year: the Jaya TV 2012 award for Sensational Debutant Music Director forAttakathi,^[18] and the Big Tamil Melody Award for Best Debut Music director forPizza.^[19] He worked on the black comedy filmSoodhu Kavvum directed by the DirectorNalan Kumarasamy next. Gana Bala was given a "gana-rap" in the film,^[20] "Kaasu Panam", which went on to become one of the most popular songs of the year.^[21][22] His work in the film earned him theVijay Award for Best Background Score.^[23] His other releases of 2013 werePizza 2: The Villa, a sequel toPizza, andBilla Ranga, his first Telugu and only full-fledged Telugu project until 2023'sDasara.

Santhosh Narayanan worked exclusively on Tamil films. He had four soundtracks released that year, the first being the album to the romantic dramaCuckoo.Cuckoo's soundtrack was highly appreciated by critics who called it an "alluring and immersive album"^[24] and "the best soundtrack that composer Santhosh Narayanan has produced yet".^[25] The song "Manasula Soora Kaathey" from the album reached number one position in theTunes all India charts,^[26] whileOutlook named it one of South India's top songs of the year.^[27] The score received equal praise withBaradwaj Rangan terming it as "great",^[28]IANS as "life-affirming",^[29]Rediff as "sensational"^[30] andSify as "outstanding".^[31] The next release was Karthik Subbaraj's second directorial,Jigarthanda, which was promoted as a "musical gangster story".^[32] WhileCuckoo featuredlive instrumentation, Santhosh Narayanan usedelectronic musical instruments for the recording inJigarthanda, who recorded almost all the songs in a studio in Sydney, Australia for nearly two months.^[33] The soundtrack and score featured a melange andfusion of several genres, includingGangsta rap,folk,electro.^[33] His work was well received again; whileThe Times of India, in its album review, wrote that "Santhosh Narayanan shows, yet again, that he is one of those composers to watch out for — both for his new sounds and tunes",^[34] The Hindu's Baradwaj Rangan stated that "his flamboyant score imbues even the weaker scenes with a Tarantinoesque swagger".^[35] AfterJigarthanda, he worked on the action-drama filmMadras. The Hindu described his score as "excellent".^[36] The soundtrack toEnakkul Oruvan, the Tamil remake of the Kannada filmLucia, for which he had composed the score, was his final 2014 release. The album was also lauded by critics.^[37] Behindwoods named him the "most promising among the younger composers".^[38]

In 2015, he worked on36 Vayadhinile, the Tamil remake of the Malayalam filmHow Old Are You.^[39] Upcoming projects of Santhosh Narayanan include the next films of directorsKarthik Subbaraj andNalan Kumarasamy.^[40] In 2016, he composed songs forSudha Kongara's bilingual sports dramaIrudhi Suttru(filmed simultaneously in Hindi asSaala Khadoos).^[41] The Hindi adaptation film, "Saala Khadoos" however did not featurebackground score by Santhosh asRajkumar Hirani, the co-producer of the film brought in composers Sanjay Wandrekar and Atul Raninga who had worked with him in3 Idiots andPK to compose the background score.Kashmora to be directed by Gokul,^[42] andManithan were his other noted released in 2016 apart fromKabali, the biggest Tamil project so far in his career. In 2016, a music critic fromThe Hindu labelled Narayanan as one of the three in "the new-age musical trio of Tamil cinema" alongsideSean Roldan andPradeep Kumar.^[43]

The year 2016 was one of the most packed years for Santhosh Narayanan. Six releases during the year including music compositions forIruthi Suttru,Manithan,Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum,Iraivi,Kabali,Kaashmora,Kodi.

In 2017, he composed for theVijay-starrerBairavaa. Santhosh's next release was as a guest composer, in the filmMeyaadha Maan, a production venture of his Karthik Subbaraj. In May 2017, Santhosh signed forKaala, his second film for Superstar Rajinikanth. In 2018 he gave scored Karthik Subbarraj's silent thriller filmMercury and Vetrimaaran'sVada Chennai, the latter being Santhosh's 25th as a composer. In 2020 with new projects which wereKasada Thapara, Jeeva starrerGypsy andPenguin.

He was involved withDulquer Salmaan's 2021 Malayalam filmSalute, before being replaced byJakes Bejoy.^[44] He also composed the soundtrack and film's score forSarpatta Parambarai; It marked the composer's fifth consecutive film with Pa. Ranjith, since his and the director's debut film Attakathi (2012). According to Santhosh, he said that "the film is influenced by the aspects of Madras, as it is mostly about the descriptive and realistic portrayal of North Chennai, while the boxing culture during the 1970s also serve as the subplot". He worked withMaajja on independent music asEnjoy Enjami sung byArivu,Dhee and himself which clocked 19 million views within one week of release making it the highest watched Tamil music video album and keeping now at 510 million views. Also on the music video Neeye Oli sung by rappersShan Vincent de Paul, Navz-47 and himself. Neeye Oli also featured inSarpatta Parambarai as the theme song. His latest releases areAnel Meley Pani Thuli,Gulu Gulu andBuffoon in Tamil,Kalki 2898 AD in Telugu andPathonpatham Noottandu andAnweshippin Kandethum in Malayalam. Narayanan made his Bollywood debut in Salman Khan's film Sikandar in which he composed the background score.^[45]

• Santhosh Narayanan atIMDb
• Santhosh Narayanan onFacebook
• Santhosh Narayanan onTwitter

• Living people
• Tamil film score composers
• Musicians from Tiruchirappalli
• 1983 births
• Tamil playback singers
• Indian male playback singers
• Indian male film score composers

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