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Harris Jayaraj

Birth Name Harris Jayaraj
Date of birth 1975-01-08
birth place Chennai, India
spouse(s) Suma Jayaraj
children Samuel Nicholas Jayaraj, Karen Nikita Jayaraj
debut year 2000
debut movie Cheli

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Overview

Harris Jayaraj entered the music world with a bang due to the success of his debut music album, Cheli. Step by step he was elevated to one of the most sought music directors down the South India.

Personal Life

Harris Jayaraj was born in a Tami Christian Nadar family and was brought up in Chennai. He went to Krishnaswamy Matric School, K. K. Nagar. His father, S. M. Jayakumar was a famous film guitarist and later elevated to a noted musician and film composer. Inspired by his father, Harris began his formal training in Carnatic music. He joined Trinity College of Music in London and scored the highest mark in Asia on his 4th grade exam.

Joyce (alias Suma) is the better half of Harri Jayaraj. The couple has a son named Samuel Nicholas and a daughter named Karen.
Career

Harris Jayaraj worked under music composers including Raj-Koti, A.R. Rahman, Mani Sharma, Karthik Raja, Vidyasagar as keyboard player for more than 600 films till 2000. He made his debut with Tamil film, Minnale starring Madhavan and Abbas. The film album was a chartbuster and won him a Filmfare award for being the best Music director. He broke AR Rehman’s record of bagging the Filmfare for nine consecutive times. The film was dubbed in to Telugu as Cheli and it was equally hit here too. Thus Telugu audience first tasted of Cheli’s music with a dubbed film. In 2002, his career received major boost with the stupendous success of films like Lesa Lesa and Saamy.

Victory Venkatesh’s Vaasu in 2002 is the first direct Telugu movie of Harris Jayaraj. The album was a super hit then but the film did not work well. Gharshana, his second direct Telugu movie in the direction of Gautam Menon in 2004 was also a musical hit. However Harris mostly confined to Tamil cinema and is in touch with Telugu audience with the music of dubbed films like Ghajini and Aparichithudu.

Despite getting a star status, Harris Jayaraj like most of his Tamil counterparts gave Kollywood first preference. He rarely scores music for direct Telugu films. He only scored music for significant Telugu direct films like Sainikudu, Munna and Orange till 2010. Unfortunately none of them did well at the box office. However since 2002, Harris’ music enthralled Telugu audience with number of dubbed Telugu movies like Surya S/O Krishnan, Rangam, 7^th Sense, Brothers etc.
Trivia
- Harris Jayaraj undertook his first musical world tour titled "Harris on the Edge" in 2011.The tour featured live performance of Harris all over the world along with a troupe of Tamil playback singers.
- Harris Jayaraj composed music for Herova? Zerova? Ad campaign which Suriya initiated under his Charity organization, the Agaram Foundation, working to help children who drop out of school early in Tamil Nadu. He also worked for a short commercial video undertaken by Tamil Nadu Government, outlining child poverty, labour and lack of education.
Upcoming Movies

No Telugu film in hand.