Dharan Kumar (born 8 October 1983) is an Indian music composer, who mainly produces film scores and soundtracks in the Tamil film industry. He made his film debut Parijatham, featuring the hit single "Unnai Kandene". He credits director and actor K. Bhagyaraj as his guru. Early life Dharan was born on 8 October 1983 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He did his schooling at St. Johns, Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School and Anna Gem schools in Chennai. He started working as an assistant to composer Harris Jayaraj in the films Kaakha Kaakha, Chellame and Anniyan. Career Film scores Dharan used to participate in music programs in the college, director K. Bhagyaraj's daughter Saranya studied in. Dharan entered the film industry as a composer in 2005. For Saranya Bhagyaraj's debut venture, Parijatham, directed by her father, Saranya recommended Dharan as the film composer. The album became a chartbuster, with the song "Unnai Kandaene" being listed among the top ten songs of the year. Sify in its review described Dharan's songs and background score as "a major highlight" of the film, which became a commercial successful as well. His next release was the soundtrack album to the low-budget horror thriller Sivi that starred newcomers. The album received very positive reviews and response as well, while Dharan's background score was highly appreciated by critics and described as "haunting", and "top-class" that gives the film "its true color". Behindwoods, in particular, praised his work, citing that Dharan had "enjoyed his work and threatened [the audience] continuously with his music", further adding that he had understood his role "perfectly well" and "delivered the goods with a sharp flourish". The film, despite garnering favourable reviews, performed poorly at the box office. Only 2009, his next album, the soundtrack to the gangster film Laadam, released, which was based on Hip-hop music, featuring Malaysian rappers Dr. Burn and Emcee Jezz. The film, directed by Prabu Solomon, also bombed at the box office, failing to propel his career. In 2010, Dharan first release was Bharath's Thambikku Indha Ooru, which, too was highly unsuccessful at the box office, while his next release would be Siddu, collaborating again with K. Bhagyaraj. The soundtrack to the film was released in 2009, for which he made composer Yuvan Shankar Raja and director Venkat Prabhu to sing each a song, with the former's song "Poove Poove" emerging a chartbuster. He made his Malayalam debut