Rahulraj was born on March 17 in Cochin 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 (South Indian Percussion instrument) and Karnatic Music. He graduated as an IT Engineer from CUSAT, Cochin and later on pursued courses such as CCNP AND CCIE in Bangalore ILloka networks. After this, he moved to London and worked as network specialist for Oxbridge Networks. During this period, he had undergone training in Electronic Sound Production. He composed and produced music for a Tamil Ayappa album, sung by Pradeep Menon. The devotional album produced in 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. It also introduced a versatile singer, Pradeep Menon, based in London. Also, he composed and produced another track for singer Pradeep Menon, called "Krishna Krishna" with percussionist Sivamani and James Asher from UK. Career On returning to India, he composed more than 100 jingles for commercials in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. Apart from composing jingles for ads, he composed original themes for many TV productions. This included major shows for Asianet and Amrita Tv. In 2003, he composed the Lokaha song for AMRITHAVARSHAM 50 which later on was taken as the theme song for Amrita TV. He also composed Malayalam albums during the period, which include En Jeevene, was shot completely in United States by the producer–director Tom George. He was given the prestigious opportunity to compose the logo theme music for the show 50 Years of Malayam Film Music with PADMABHUSHAN Dr. K. J. Yesudas. His first soundtrack was Chotta Mumbai, directed by Anwar Rasheed with Mohanlal in the lead. His second release was Suresh Gopi's Time directed by Shaji Kailas. Shankar Mahadevan, one of India's most high profile playback singers, has sung for him, in his debut work, 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 famous Tamil Film Production company Ayngaran International. In the same year, he became the first music director in Malayalam filmdom to have a registered fans' association called RRFA (Rahul Raj Fans Association), based in Thiruvananthapuram. After so many soundtracks, he was able to capture the imagination of modern western music enthusiasts as well as old school musicians and listeners in Kerala. In 2009, he won the Vayalar Award; which was given by a jury of old school musicians including K.P. Udayabhanu. He introduced techniques like the counterpoint to Malayalam film music, through his soundtrack for the motion picture Ritu. He is slowly being recognized for having introduced international sound in Malayalam music; through his trial to make each instrument sound like it how is played by the world number one artist. For example, he is one of the very few artists in India, who could get the exact tone(Sound) of Kenny G in his saxophone interludes. In 2010, he won the Kerala State Award for Best Background Score for the film Ritu. [edit] Orchestration Rahul Raj is known for giving ultra-modern orchestration in his songs. He uses international elements to program the BGMs in his songs. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.