The big break

Kadali, one of the most anticipated movies of 2013 (after a name change, being in production for two years, and with Mani Ratnam at the helm and AR Rahman scoring the music), will have a slew of new names on the opening credits. Revolving around the life of fishermen in Tamil Nadu, the movie features Gautham Karthik, son of actor Karthik Muthuraman and Thulasi Nair, daughter of Radha aka Udaya Chandrika, in the lead roles, with actress Lakshmi Manchu making her Tamil début as a village girl. In addition, there will be new voices like Shakthisree Gopalan (whose Nenjukulle went viral on YouTube), Sid Sriram and Abhay Jodhpurkar who have sung numbers like Yedike and Patchani Thota in the movie. We talk to the newcomers:

Sid Sriram

US-based singer, Sid Sriram, made his début with the song Yedike. He started learning Carnatic music at the age of three from his mother Latha Sriram, also a Carnatic singer. After studying under, P S Narayanaswamy for 10 years, he decided to pursue music as his career. He gets talking:

Things changed for me after getting a call from A R Rahman’s office. They asked me to send a sample of my songs. They had also heard me sing during the Margazhi festival and that’s how I landed the song.  Yedike is very fresh. It has a mix of blues, jazz and Tamil folk. Only AR Rahman’s sheer genius could bring all three genres together. Madan Karky’s lyrics are also amazing. Singing in Tamil was not difficult as most of my Carnatic songs are in Sanskrit or Tamil.

People keep asking me if I am going to settle down in Chennai. I am also working on an album back at home, so I cannot really settle here. I would increase my time spent here though.

I performed with ARR in December and it was an unforgettable experience. I have done several shows but singing with him in front of a huge crowd like that was amazing. That was also the first time I met the other singers of the movie.

I do not want to be only a playback singer. I want to balance R&B and Carnatic, continue singing, song writing and be an instrumentalist as well

Abhay Jodhpurkar

Born and raised in Indore, Abhay Jodhpurkar came down to Chennai to pursue his Bachelors in Bio Technology from SRM University. The 21-year old, who is a pro at Qawwali (a form of Sufi music), started listening to A R Rahman’s songs and enrolled in his music school, K M Music Conservatory. We get talking:

I had no clue that I would be singing Patchani Thota. I thought that after I sing, someone else would do the main track. ARR was composing the track and Mani was there too. I recorded the song and there were a few pronunciation errors so they called me for re-recording. That’s when I realised my voice had been retained.

I am yet to explore what I am best at. I think I do sad romantic songs, devotional songs and Hindustani the best. I have learnt a lot by just listening to music. I learnt Qawwali from Munna Shaokath Ali (of Piya Haji Ali fame). We have practice sessions with him for 15 to 20 minutes on weekends as part of our curriculum.

Kadali is scheduled to release on February 1.