Musically Yours: Shruti Haasan

Read More">Composing music for Unnaipol Oruvan When my dad first told me that he wanted me to compose the music and background score for Unnaipol Oruvan (the Tamil remake of A Wednesday) I thought he was kidding. A Wednesday had no songs per se so when I heard that I had to compose music for theRead More

Composing music for Unnaipol Oruvan

When my dad first told me that he wanted me to compose the music and background score for Unnaipol Oruvan (the Tamil remake of A Wednesday) I thought he was kidding. A Wednesday had no songs per se so when I heard that I had to compose music for the Tamil remake of that film, I was wondering in what different way can I look at the music for this film… Unnaipol Oruvan is a very intense, politically and ideologically driven film. I could have gone for the typical music score that one associates with a serious film but that would have been boring. So I thought of the film as this fight between two superheroes both fighting for a different cause. One was Mohanlal's character and the other was Kamal Haasan's character. When I looked at it that way, I came up with a whole new way of composing a heroic background score for the film which conveyed that both the common man and the police officer are heroic characters in their own way. I was initially apprehensive if the audience would get what the music is trying to convey but am really happy that the music has been widely appreciated. Separately we came up with an album to promote the idea of the film. So you had different songs like 'Allah Jaane' (sung by dad) which is a nice Sufi number depicting the plight of those who terrorize and those who are terrorized. We also had a hip-hop rap number by Blaaze and I which also conveyed the mood of the film in a really different way. We also shot an interesting video with montage from the film. All in all, it was a great experience.

Future plans

I am acting in a Telugu film called Yodha opposite Siddharth. I've also been working on my album for a long time now. It's a mix of English and Hindi songs. It's been in the making for 15 months now and is almost ready for release.

My Band “Everybody’s first band is mildly embarrassing but I remember during my days in Mumbai, Read More">I used to gig with a lot of bands. I also went to Music School in Los Angeles when I was 19. I did a program called VIT that gives specialized training in vocal performance and song writing. WhilstRead More

My Band

"Everybody's first band is mildly embarrassing but I remember during my days in Mumbai, I used to gig with a lot of bands. I also went to Music School in Los Angeles when I was 19. I did a program called VIT that gives specialized training in vocal performance and song writing. Whilst there, I played with 3 different bands and when I came back, I formed the band- 'The Extramentals'. Playing with 'The Extramentals' was really special, because the bass player of the band is also one of my best friends. We had a really great creative connect. We travelled to a lot of places such as Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and had a blast performing at each of these places. But as they say everyone has to part ways at some point of time or the other, even the members of our band went to pursue our own interests."

Singing in Bollywood and Kollywood

"I don't think there is much of a difference singing in Hindi or Tamil because Music has its own universal language. Like, even if you don't know Bengali as a language, you'll be able to sing a Bengali song much easily than say a few lines in Bengali. I can sing in English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada."

Getting into acting

"Having grown up in a filmy family, I was always influenced by cinema. As a kid I was really obsessed with Kurosawa and Polanski. In fact, singing happened to me by mistake. I always harbored dreams of writing and directing films. However, when my musical journey took off, I was in a dilemma of whether to pursue singing or take up acting. Luckily for me, I didn't have to choose between the two and here I am juggling both my passions."

With parents like Kamal Haasan and Sarika, there was never any doubt that Shruti Haasan would make a career in cinema. However, people were surprised when she first showed her musical side, composing and singing for films and then made her acting debut. In this special feature of Musically Yours, Read More">we talk to Shruti aboutRead More

With parents like Kamal Haasan and Sarika, there was never any doubt that Shruti Haasan would make a career in cinema. However, people were surprised when she first showed her musical side, composing and singing for films and then made her acting debut. In this special feature of Musically Yours, we talk to Shruti about how it all started for her in the world of music.

Early Days

"I started singing at a very early age though it was mainly for fun. I've been singing since the age of 5 but took up professional training only much later. During my school days, I was really bad at Maths. My scores in Maths were so low that I was given an option of dropping Maths for Music or Arts. I chose Music and began learning Hindustani Classical Music. Hence, I say that I stumbled into singing completely by mistake."

My Gurus of Music

"I started learning music professionally when I was 14. My Guruji in Chennai is Pandit Manohar Kulkarni, he is really popular there. Besides I also learnt a lot about music and singing from Suresh Wadkarji in Mumbai."

First Break

"Strange as it may sound, my first singing assignment was at the age of 6. Though I was raw and untrained, I sang a song in my dad's Tamil film Thevar Magan. The song was composed by Ilaiyaraaja Sir. After that I got a chance to sing in a lot of Tamil films. I remember Ilaiyaraaja Sir calling me to sing a few lines here and there in quite a few films. My first Hindi song was in Chachi 420 and later I also sang in another of dad's films Hey Ram. That way I guess I am blessed to have got a break pretty early in life."

What’s playing on my iPod? “Among Bollywood numbers, Read More">I really love the songs of Dev D. The ‘Emotional Atyachar- Rock version‘ is my absolute favorite. I also like the songs of Striker especially ‘Bombay Bombay‘ composed by Amit Trivedi and ‘Haq Se‘ composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. I also like the remix version of ‘DilRead More

What's playing on my iPod?

"Among Bollywood numbers, I really love the songs of Dev D. The 'Emotional Atyachar- Rock version' is my absolute favorite. I also like the songs of Striker especially 'Bombay Bombay' composed by Amit Trivedi and 'Haq Se' composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja. I also like the remix version of 'Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji' from Ishqiya. That's the latest addition to my iPod.

Among international songs, I am listening to Mute Math which is this really nice alternative band. They have this amazing song called 'Peculiar People' which is stuck on my iPod since the past 8 months. I really like Robbie Williams' new song 'Body'. I've also been listening to a lot of old school blues stuff like this great band called The Black Keys"

Favorite Composers

R.D. Burman, A.R.Rahman, Ilaiyaraaja are all my favorite composers. My favorite Rahman album is Dil Se…I simply love the songs of that album especially 'Satrangi Re' and 'Ae Ajnabi'. I've loved Ilaiayraaja sir's work in a lot of my dad's films. As for the late R.D. Burman, what I love about him is that he was way ahead of his time in terms of arranging. He brought that big band feeling really well and mixed it up beautifully. Most of his compositions were truly revolutionary.

Among international artists I simply worship Madonna. I love all her songs but 'Substitute for love' and 'Frozen' are two names that immediately come to my mind. I also love The White Album by The Beatles. I am also a huge fan of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

Favorite Bollywood Singers

I love Sonu Nigam's songs. I recently heard his song 'Cham Cham' from Striker and was completely blown away. I don't think he has sung this well in a long, long time. I also really like 'Suraj Hua Madham' from K3G which is all time favorite of any Sonu Nigam fan. Among the female artists, I really like Sunidhi Chauhan. I remember we were in school when her song 'Mehboob Mere' from Fiza had just released. We were all curious to know who this singer was who had such a wonderful voice. She is truly amazing. I also like Sukhwinder's voice in some of his songs where he doesn't do the usual stuff.