- Lived:
- born 6 January 1967, Madras (Chennai) — and Chennai is where the life has stayed: the home studio in Kodambakkam from which the work went out to Mumbai, London, Los Angeles and the world
- Field:
- music — film composition and production, Tamil and Hindi cinema first, then the world's stages; founder of the KM Music Conservatory
- The Big Idea:
- He moved the centre of Indian film music from the orchestra hall to the studio — building songs in layers of electronics, world instruments and unexpected voices — and in doing so made the composer, not the singer, the name the music sold on.
- In their words:
- "Ella pugazhum iraivanukke" — "all praise belongs to God," the Tamil phrase he is reported to have spoken from the Oscar stage, February 2009 (as of September 2026)
- If you remember one thing:
- A boy who lost his father at nine and his schooling to session work built a recording studio in his backyard — and out of that back room came the sound of modern India, carried all the way to two Academy Awards.