Several celebrities from the film industry, including two of Tamil cinema's top stars -- Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan -- congratulated Ilaiyaraaja on being nominated to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his happiness over Ilaiyaraaja's nomination to the Rajya Sabha in a tweet in which he said:
Superstar Rajinikanth tweeted, "My hearty congratulations to my dear friend Ilaiyaraaja, a musician, who has been appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha." He and Ilaiyaraaja are going to reunite after 28 years for R. Balki's next film with Rajinikanth in the lead.
Khushbu Sundar, an actress, and influential BJP member was among the first to react to the news. She tweeted,
Haasan, who shares a very close bond with Ilaiyaraaja, also congratulated the Maestro. But his tweet was not a simple one.
Writing in Tamil, Haasan put out a tweet that said, "If they are to be honored for their artistic achievement @ilaiyaraaja without oppar and mikar, they can be unanimously given the presidency. However, we also congratulate this Rajya Sabha member's appointment."
Telugu Megastar Chiranjeevi also wholeheartedly congratulated Ilaiyaraaja. He tweeted,
Chiranjeevi went on to thank the Prime Minister for nominating Ilaiyaraaja. "Grateful thanks to Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji for bestowing the well-deserved honor of Presidential nomination as Rajya Sabha members on extremely deserving stalwarts from the film Industry -- Shri K.V, Vijayendra Prasad garu, and Shri Ilaiyaraaja garu."
K.V. Vijayendra Prasad, incidentally, was most recently in the news for being the 'RRR' screenwriter.
One of the greatest music composers of the country, Ilaiyaraaja hails from a small village called Pannaiyapuram in the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu. He has scored music for more than 1,400 movies and composed over 7,000 songs, many of which have gone on to emerge as chartbusters and timeless classics.
Winner of five National Awards, Ilaiyaraaja was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2010 and the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second-highest civilian award in 2018.
[With Inputs from IANS]
