Following the announcement of Padma Vibhushan awards a horde of reporters went to Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja’s house in Chennai. Surprised by the group of newsmen thronging to his house, Ilaiyaraaja enquired what the fuss was all about.  Scribes broke to him the news that he had won the ‘Padmabhushan’ award and that they had assembled to congratulate him on winning the coveted award.

Out of curiosity to shake hands with the Maestro, some scribes stumbled upon some antique collections the Maestro had kept at his house as part of the interior decoration.  When some of the collections broke, the Maestro didn’t show his disappointment but was obviously worried at the loss of money and the damage caused to the select items.

A reporter posed an indiscreet and out-of-context question to Ilaiyaraaja when he asked the Maestro as to why, of late in his films, only one or two of the five songs are getting popular.

This question obviously made the maestro feel irritated and it was evident in his responses to the other queries.