Anirudh RavichanderTamil Playback Singer – Song Lyrics & Movies

His debut song "Why This Kolaveri Di", composed for the 2012 film 3, went viral across the globe and has achieved over 590 million views on YouTube. A.R. Murugadoss signed him to compose music for Kaththi (2014) starring Vijay & Samantha which included the viral hit "Selfie Pulla". The soundtrack for the film became Anirudh's highest profile soundtrack until he was signed to compose music for Rajinikanth's Petta in 2019.

In 2016, he signed a record deal with Sony Music, which publishes his independent albums and live concerts. In the same year, he featured with Diplo on the remix of Major Lazer's hit single "Cold Water".

Anirudh Ravichander was born in a Tamil family to actor Ravi Raghavendra and classical dancer Lakshmi Ravichander in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He has an elder sister. He is the nephew of Latha Rajinikanth and Sudha Mahendra thus making Aishwarya, Soundarya, Hrishikesh and Madhuvanthi his cousins. Through the same relationships, Rajinikanth and Y. G. Mahendran are his uncles. Anirudh's great-grandfather was the director K. Subramanyam, a filmmaker in the 1930s, and his grandfather was S. V. Ramanan, an Indian radio, film, television personality and musician. Anirudh is also the grand-nephew of Padma Vibhushan Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam.

He graduated from the Loyola College in Chennai in 2011, which, according to him, was a backup in case his music career did not take off. Anirudh learnt piano from Trinity College of Music, London. He was also part of a fusion band. Anirudh has also pursued a diploma in sound engineering from Soundtech Media Audio Engineering Institute in Chennai. In his school days, Anirudh and his band had participated in a reality television show judged by the famous musician A. R. Rahman, and his band was one of the winners along with five other bands in the show.

Anirudh is engaged to Kaviya Maran, the daughter of media proprietor Kalanithi Maran.

Anirudh made his debut as a music composer in his cousin Aishwarya Rajinikanth's directorial debut 3, starring Dhanush. While pursuing his degree at Loyola College, he had composed the scores for short films directed by Aishwarya and his work on short films convinced her to have him work on her first commercial venture. In early November 2011, a leaked version of a song from the film Why This Kolaveri Di!, circulated online and the film's team decided to subsequently release it officially. It instantly became popular on social networking sites for its quirky Tanglish lyrics. Soon, the song became the most searched YouTube video in India and internet phenomenon across Asia. The song revolves around the film's main actor being dumped by his girlfriend; the song is sung by the character in a drunken state, with many of the lines nonsensical. According to the composer, 3's director Aishwarya Rajinikanth wanted a light-hearted song about failed love. Anirudh quickly composed the tune in about 10 minutes.

The remaining songs of the album were released in December and also received largely positive reviews from critics. A reviewer from Behindwoods noted, "Such a promising debut by a composer hasn't been seen in recent Tamil cinema history", while Rediff.com's reviewer noted that "all the songs in 3 are good and come with appealing instrumental arrangements", concluding that it was "an intriguing collection." Anirudh also received praise for his background score in the film. He consequently went on to gain recognition for the film through accolades, notably the Vijay Award for Best Find of the Year as well as nominations at the South Indian International Movie Awards and the 60th Filmfare Awards South. He also worked on the Telugu dubbed version of the film. Anirudh teamed up with Dhanush soon after to produce a Kolaveri-inspired track titled "Sachin anthem" commemorating Sachin Tendulkar in association with the health drink, Boost.

Next, he sang and composed a single for David – a multi-starrer directed by Bejoy Nambiar; "Kanave Kanave" in Tamil and "Yu Hi Re" in Hindi. The album also opened to very positive reviews, with a critic noting: Anirudh's song was "the pick of the album". His next album was Ethir Neechal, starring Sivakarthikeyan. Anirudh introduced rappers Yo Yo Honey Singh and Hiphop Tamizha in the album. Moreover, Sony Music India released the complete background score of Ethir Neechal via YouTube owing to its popularity. His next soundtrack, Vanakkam Chennai released in July 2013. For the song "Oh Penne", he roped in Vishal Dadlani for the first time in Tamil music. Another promotional song, "Chennai City Gangster", saw him collaborate again with Hiphop Tamizha and British Indian rapper Hard Kaur, with the trio also featuring in a music video for the film. In September 2013, he was signed on to compose the background score for Selvaraghavan's fantasy film Irandam Ulagam after Harris Jayaraj had opted out. Anirudh noted his happiness at working with Selvaraghavan early in his career, despite being called up as a replacement and subsequently recorded for the film in Budapest.

On 15 June 2014, Anirudh Ravichander attended the inaugural Behindwoods Gold Medals ceremony held at the ITC Grand Chola in Chennai. During the event, he was presented with the Behindwoods Gold Medal for Best Music Direction for his work on the soundtracks of Ethir Neechal (2013) and Vanakkam Chennai (2013). The award was presented to him on stage by composer A. R. Rahman. Accepting the honour, Anirudh noted that receiving the award from Rahman—whom he cited as his childhood hero—was a significant personal milestone.