Madras Day: Paying tribute to the personalities who made Madras popular

Ilayaraja, the doyen of South Indian music has bagged 5 National awards so far. He became the first Asian to score a symphony for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, besides scoring over 1000 feature films in a period of 38 years. (File | EPS)

Five time winner of the World Chess Championship, Indian chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand dominated the world of chess for six years from 2007 to 2013. (File | EPS)

The Indian-American-British structural biologist and Nobel prize winner, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was born in Chidambaram district of Tamil Nadu. (File | EPS)

M. S. Subbulakshmi, the Chennai based Carnatic singer from Madurai, is the first Indian musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna as well as the Ramon Magsaysay award. (File | EPS)

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, the Indian physicist who made his motherland proud by becoming the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for Physics, was born in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.(File | EPS)

Dr Suniti Solomon detected the first cases of AIDS in India in the year 1986.A visionary in the field of microbiology, a teacher and an activist, she has been posthumously awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India for her contribution to the field. (File | EPS)

Jayalalithaa, the actor turned politician served six terms as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for over fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. (File | EPS)

Krishnamachari Srikanth, the former captain of the Indian cricket team and former chairman of the selection committee represented Tamil Nadu in the Indian domestic circuit. (File | EPS)

Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran popularly known as MGR, served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for ten years between 1977 and 1987. National Film Award winning actor, MGR is a cultural icon of Tamil Nadu, where he is regarded as one of the most influential actors of the Tamil film industry. (File | EPS)