Anirudh Ravichander

Anirudh Ravichander is an Indian composer and playback singer renowned for his exuberant, high-energy dance songs that incorporate modern electronic, rock, and hip-hop elements. His debut song, "Why This Kolaveri Di" from the 2012 film 3, was a hit, and he went on to earn hundreds of millions of streams for rousing tracks like 2014's "Selfie Pulla," 2021's "Chellamma," 2022's "Arabic Kuthu," and several tunes from 2023's Jawan, the Tamil composer's first full soundtrack for a Hindi film. He made his television debut with The Ba***ds of Bollywood in 2025. Born and raised in Chennai, Ravichander comes from an artistic family: His father is actor Ravi Raghavendra and his mother, Lakshmi Ravichander, is a classical dancer. His great-grandfather, Krishnasamy Subramaniyam, made films in the 1930s and '40s, and he has other filmmakers and actors in his extended family. Anirudh graduated from Loyola College in Chennai with Bachelor of Commerce in 2011, joined a rock band, and eventually started working on short films under the tutelage of director Aishwarya (Rajinikanth) Dhanush. Ravichander's feature-length debut was with Dhanush on 3 in 2012. He worked as a score composer, songwriter, and playback singer on the film, the soundtrack for which included his debut single, "Why This Kolaveri Di," a song that went viral internationally. Ravichander's career took off from there, and he had another big hit with "Selfie Pulla" from 2014's "Kaththi." In 2016, he signed with Sony Music and was also featured alongside Diplo on a remix of Major Lazer's hit song "Cold Water." Up until then, Ravichander was based in the Tamil film industry, but he made his Telugu debut with the movie Agnyaathavaasi in 2018. In the early 2020s, Ravichander's popularity only increased, with songs like "Vaathi Coming" (2021's Master), "Chellamma" (2021's Doctor), and "Arabic Kuthu" (2022's Beast), a single that combined Arabic and Tamil lyrics, each garnering hundreds of millions of streams. When A.R. Rahman declined to work on the Hindi film Jawan (2023), Ravichander stepped in, and two of the resulting songs, "Zinda Banda" and "Not Ramaiya Vastavaiya," set streaming records for the most plays within 24 hours for an Indian song at the time. He had another hit with "Chaleya" from the same film. He made his first venture into television in 2025 as composer for the series The Ba***ds of Bollywood. In early 2026, Ravichander released "Feel the Thrill" featuring Neeti Mohan, Jonita, Benny Dayal, and Siddharth Mahadevan, the official event song for the ICC (International Cricket Council) Men's T20 World Cup. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi