Formation (1985–96) Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy came up from the ranks of the non-film music scene, performing rock, blues, jazz and pop before entering the film music industry. Shankar Mahadevan, a software engineer, worked on Oracle Version Six and studied
Western, Hindustani and
Carnatic classical music. He made his debut with the 1985
Marathi film Vahinichi Maya. A leading playback singer with
Pukar,
Sapnay and
Biwi No.1 to his credit, he also composed
Breathless. Ehsaan Noorani studied music at the Musicians' Institute in Los Angeles and worked with the likes of Ronnie Desai,
Laxmikant–Pyarelal,
Kalyanji-Anandji and Louis Banks. He composed
Alien Desire, did several jingles and like Loy, was part of a blues-and-acid jazz band. Loy Mendonsa is trained in Western classical and also learnt the rudiments of Indian classical music. He performed with several group bands and plays (
Godspell,
West Side Story,
Jesus Christ Superstar) and composed jingles and signature tunes (
Fauji,
The World This Week). Ehsaan was doing jingles and Loy was in Delhi before the union. Loy was writing for television then. The show
Quiz Time was his first work and
Siddharth Basu gave him his first break. Then he did
Prannoy Roy's
The World This Week. A few more shows came along and he also did theatre and
Shahrukh Khan's Fauji. Loy had also worked as keyboardist with A. R. Rahman and Shankar had sung many famous tracks for him. In 1989, Ehsaan met Loy, who was working for
Ranjit Barot, an ad film composer. From then on, they joined and composed several ad
jingles together. Later, Ehsaan and Loy met Shankar when he was roped in by Ranjit Barot to sing for the
Pepsi ad directed by
Mukul Anand. Since then, they started to compose for ads as a trio.
Early years (1997–2001) Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy were to make their debut as composers in
Mukul Anand's film
Dus. Director Anand wanted Ehsaan to compose the music for the film, but he insisted that Shankar and Loy work with him and Anand agreed. though the movie itself was a dud in the box-office. The turning point of their career as music directors though, was
Dil Chahta Hai, which was the debut film of
Farhan Akhtar as a director. Initially,
A. R. Rahman was considered to do the music, but he backed out due to other assignments. Then the trio composed a title track for the film, which Farhan liked, and he signed them for the film. This marked the beginning of the trio's friendship with Farhan Akhtar and long-term association with
Excel Entertainments. Post
Dil Chahta Hai, they composed music for several small budget films like
Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai?,
Nayee Padosan and
Ek Aur Ek Gyarah, where all of them went unnoticed as all the movies were panned by the critics. They also had two big ventures,
Honey Irani's
Armaan and
Rohan Sippy's
Kuch Naa Kaho, which yet again, failed to impress both critics and audiences – though their work in
Armaan was lauded by critics.
Kal Ho Naa Ho and First National Award (2004–06) Following
Dil Chahta Hai, their next big venture was
Dharma Productions'
Kal Ho Naa Ho, directed by
Nikhil Advani. The album received a highly positive response when the film was released and it became one of the best selling Indian music albums of the year and was the highest seller album of 2003. The soundtrack won numerous awards including the
National Film Award for Best Music Direction and their first Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. The year 2005 saw them collaborate with
Shaad Ali for
Bunty Aur Babli, as his first choice, A. R. Rahman, was busy with other assignments. The soundtrack, despite the initial mixed reaction from various critics, became immensely popular among the public, and went on to win several awards including their second Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. The song "
Kajra Re" featuring
Aishwarya Rai,
Abhishek Bachchan and
Amitabh Bachchan became a rage among the listeners. In 2006, they reteamed with Dharma Productions for
Karan Johar's musical romantic drama
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. The soundtrack and background score of the film received universal acclaim and became the second highest-selling Indian music album of the year. Their next album that year was Farhan Akhtar's
Don: The Chase Begins Again. They composed seven songs, including two versions of "Yeh Mera Dil" and "Khaike Paan Banaraswala", from
Don (1978). The track "
Aaj Ki Raat" was also included in the
Academy Award-winning soundtrack Slumdog Millionaire. The soundtracks of
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and
Don: The Chase Begins Again earned them several nominations at various award ceremonies, including their fourth and fifth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
Later career (2007–present) 2007 was arguably the best year of their career. The year started off with
Nikhil Advani's multistarrer
Salaam-e-Ishq, which was lauded by critics and music lovers alike, and went on to rule the music charts. The music was praised by the movie critics too, despite the movie itself receiving mixed-to-negative responses. Same was the fate of their next release,
Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Despite the music getting positive reviews and becoming quite a sensation among listeners, the movie failed to make a mark. However, this pattern was broken by their next release,
Akshay Kumar's
Heyy Babyy, where both the film and the music were commercial successes. In August, the album
Johnny Gaddaar was released, which was co-produced by the trio and
Adlabs, first of its kind in the history of Bollywood. Both the music and movie received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Their last album of the year,
Aamir Khan's
Taare Zameen Par, was well received by critics, and both the film and the music got a cult status among audiences. In 2008, their major release was
Rock On!! – which was a cult favourite and rage among the audience, and went on to become a huge commercial success, despite the initial cold reaction from the critics. The soundtrack earned them their sixth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
Luck By Chance was their last album of 2008, which garnered positive reviews from both Indian and international critics. In 2009 they scored music for the
Salman Khan and
Ajay Devgan starrer
London Dreams. Although the music received favorable reviews, the movie didn't fare well in the box office. They also composed the music of
Ayan Mukherjee's debut film
Wake Up Sid starring
Ranbir Kapoor and
Konkona Sen Sharma along with
Amit Trivedi. The music, especially the title track, topped charts, and received widespread critical acclaim. The soundtrack earned them their seventh nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. Their first soundtrack of 2010 was the Karan Johar's social drama
My Name Is Khan. The soundtrack blends western bar blues and techno sounds with Indian classical styles such as
Sufi and Hindustani. The soundtrack was well received, and they won several awards including the
Screen Award for Best Music Director, the Big Star Award For Best Music Director, and the
IIFA Award for Best Background Score, in addition to their eighth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. This was followed by Farhan Akhtar's
Karthik Calling Karthik which despite getting mixed reviews from critics, did very well on the charts. The track "
Uff Teri Adaa" marked the debut of Loy's daughter
Alyssa Mendonsa and became immensely popular. The next major release of the year was
Sajid Khan's
Housefull, which received generally favourable reviews from reviewers and the track "Oh Girl" by Alyssa and Tarun Sagar topped the charts.
Ali Zafar's
Tere Bin Laden then followed, of which the song "Ullu Da Pattha" became a rage. The phrase was hence used for the promotion of the movie. Their final release of 2010, was Dharma Productions'
We Are Family starring
Kajol,
Kareena Kapoor and
Arjun Rampal. The album received a mixed response, and the film was only an average success at the box office. 2011 began with Nikhil Advani's
Akshay Kumar-starrer
Patiala House, which was well received by all mainstream critics, though the movie didn't quite get such an enthralling reception. The following release,
Excel Entertainment's
Game, was met with poor reviews. the movie itself was met with extremely negative reception from the critics and turned out to be a disaster at the box office. They also scored music for
Walt Disney's maiden Indian venture,
Zokkomon. The music and the film failed to generate any positive buzz. Their first international venture, the UK movie
West is West, was released on 18 February 2011. The music was well received by almost all the reviewers, despite the movie itself receiving reviews ranging from mixed to positive. Their major release of the year,
Zoya Akhtar's multistarrer
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, was met with universal critical acclaim and opened well in the charts. However, the year ended on a low note for them with Farhan Akhtar's much-anticipated
Don 2 receiving mixed response from the critics. Their work on the former earned them their ninth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. The trio had three releases in 2012. The bigger of their biggest releases,
Kamal Haasan's
controversial film Vishwaroopam, went on to become a major financial success. Their other release,
Chittagong, was met with critical praise, and won Shankar the 2013
National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer, and Prasoon Joshi the
National Film Award for Best Lyrics. They had also composed for the animated film
Delhi Safari, whose title song was shortlisted for nominations in the
Original Song category for the 85th Academy Awards. In 2014, they collaborated with Dharma Productions for the romantic drama
2 States (2014), which earned them high critical praise and their third Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. In 2015, they composed the soundtrack and background score for Zoya Akhtar's
Dil Dhadakne Do which earned them their eleventh nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. In 2016, their work on the soundtrack of
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's
Mirzya earned them their twelfth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. After a year-long hiatus, they composed music for the spy thriller
Raazi (2018) starring
Alia Bhatt and
Vicky Kaushal and directed by
Meghna Gulzar for which they received their thirteenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. In 2019, it was announced that the trio would be making their debut in the
digital streaming space by composing the soundtrack and background score for an upcoming web series named
Bandish Bandits. They also composed songs for multilingual film
Saaho in four languages starring
Prabhas of
Baahubali fame. In mid-2018, the trio was signed to compose for
Prithviraj Sukumaran's
Malayalam-language period epic
Kaaliyan which was then put on hold for various reasons. Meanwhile, in Hindi, they also composed for another period film,
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, but backed out of the
Amitabh Bachchan-
Aamir Khan-starrer
Thugs of Hindostan due to scheduling conflicts. In 2020, they composed the soundtrack of
Meghna Gulzar's
Chhapaak which earned them their fourteenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. In 2026, they made their debut in
Malayalam cinema as music composer with the film
Chatha Pacha: The Ring of Rowdies. == Other works ==