Mahesh

Sri: Hi, Mahesh! How's the feeling now, after the film is deemed a hit!
Mahesh: I am extremely happy. it is good to see that the film reached the targeted audience. I am happy that the audio enjoyed a platinum disc celebration already. ...The sad part is that I'm unable to attend it due to work in USA.

Sri: We'll begin from the beginning, like they say! Tell me something about yourself.
Mahesh: I was actually born in Dubai, as my dad was working there at that time. We later shifted to Chennai when I was ten years old and I did my schooling there in State Bank Officers Association School in Anna Nagar, and engineering from S.V.C.E, Chennai. After my engineering, I got my Masters from North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Sri: By the way, are you married?
Mahesh: I am married to Shuba. ...No kids yet!

Sri: Tell me about your music background.
Mahesh: I took classes to learn basics in music while in Dubai. After we moved to Chennai, I didn't formally learn any music but I used to be a keyboard player in many concerts as a college student... Once I got here to U.S.A, I did a course in Film Music Composition from UCLA in Los Angeles.

Sri: Who did you work with as a keyboard player while in India?
Mahesh: I worked with a lot of amazing musicians like Sivamani, Ganesh-Kumaresh, Vikku Vinayaga Ram, etc.

Sri: How did you know them?
Mahesh: We formed a classical music fusion band in college and one of those people I played with put me on to Vikku Vinayaga Ram. Once I started playing with them, it was a word-of-mouth thing from there on and I got to know all these stalwarts. I actually learnt a lot ­just by doing concerts with them and playing for recordings.

Sri: Any special moments while working with the veterans?
Mahesh: Doing concerts with them itself is an amazing experience, Sri, especially since you're then playing with some of the best musicians in the world! In the beginning, it was very intimidating for me, because I was just a kid from college, fooling around, and here I was playing with some of the people that I had admired for a long time. But, just playing with them taught me so much about dynamics, the "sound" of music, arrangement... they were all very encouraging towards me. In fact, we spent so much time together that all of us are still good friends... it got to a point where we understood each other so well that we could go for concerts at the drop of a hat. Sivamani and I did a concert with a bunch of people (Malarvannan, Palghat Sriram, and a few others), where we went on stage without quite knowing what we were going to play. It was just amazing... we just started playing and everything flowed. It was as if we had been practising for months. It's a totally different experience, and I miss the rush...

Sri: So, did you also do any shows in the U.S.A.?
Mahesh: Nope.... actually, all my music activites came to a stand-still once I came to the U.S.A, but after a little while in North Carolina, I got together a set of friends and we used to jam together... that started it off all over again...

Sri: Did you work for any films earlier as keyboard player?
Mahesh: No, I never went into the film music line during my college days, which was probably good for me. As I was learning, my musical style was influenced a lot by classical music and also rock, jazz, and the Blues. When I was playing with these people in college, that helped give me a different perspective on music...

Sri: How did you land in films then?
Mahesh: Well, after I got to the U.S, I did an album with a friend of mine - Anita. She's an amazing singer and our album was called Mugangal - it was in Tamil and each song in it was based on an emotion, such as happiness, love, apprehension, ...and so on. We kept the songs in our website too, which Raj and DK (directors of the film Flavors) happened to listen and contacted me for their film. I loved the movie and did music for Flavors... It was an amazing experience and the project was awesome. The movie played at a lot of film festivals and won quite a few awards and the music got a lot of recognition. So, Deva, who heard the music of Flavors before making Vennela, got me in to do the music for Vennela.

Sri: But, Deva is from Detroit and you are from Calif. How did the music sittings happen, or like they say, how did the East meet the West?
Mahesh: Our music sittings were always remote � that was the challenge, in fact! Initially, Deva thought that distance might be a factor, but we started working through � believe it or not � Yahoo! Messenger and voice chat! So, we used to get onto voice chat and we did all the music discussions over the Internet ...hi-tech stuff! (laughs) (Sri: Actually, I listened to one such "sitting" when Deva wanted me to, over the speakerphone.) But, the main thing is that I was to get into an understanding and ...get into a groove with the director, so to say. We got very comfortable working with each other and we had an amazing chemistry. Thus, once that happened, all the songs were easy and everything fell into place.

Sri: How did you decide the playback singers for the film, as you were a newcomer yourself? Mahesh: As far as singers go, it was easy. We were looking for fresh voices. So, we had decided that all the singers had to match the actors on screen. We decided that there was no point in getting old singers to sing for young actors and actresses, and that it'd look ridiculous if the voice did not match the character on the screen. We wanted to carry the energy and the feel of the song � that was the most important thing! We got to know of Saindhavi and I really liked her voice. I seriously think she is going to be someone to reckon in the coming years. I knew Sudeep and Devan through friends of mine and their voices go amazingly well together...

Sri: And, what about the local young singers? Where did you find them?
Mahesh: In Chennai. ...And, they're young and the energy of the song is actually magnified thus. Especially in chEstaara love... and nEla taakani.... Even in Busy life..., we had four singers to match up with the four characters in the movie. I think that's one of the reasons that the picturization is so realistic... It echoes what the movie has. That's definitely one of Deva's strong points. Another of his strong points is that he completely goes by the "feel" of the situation � he wants to make sure that the situation and the song go hand in hand and also that the songs are a part of the movie and not something exclusive of the movie.

Sri: Sunita dubbed the voice for Parvathi Melton. Yet, she didn't get to sing any songs...
Mahesh: Deva wanted to get her in. In fact, I think I heard some of her songs before we went to India, to see what kind of songs she could sing, etc. But, by the time I went to Chennai, she was in U.S.A doing various shows around here. So we were unable to get her do a song for Vennela. In future, I'd definitely like to work with her...

Sri: Did you have any problems with the re-recording?
Mahesh: Re-recording was fun... in fact, I loved the re-recording process. It's a lot more challenging to me. It enhances the movie without getting in the way. I had to shut out everything and just work on the music... The rerecording for the movie had to go with the feel of the movie � young, energetic and new age, but dark in the second half... I had to come up with themes for the Kothi gang and the individual characters. The Kothi gang scenes were really fun.

Sri: What encouragement did you get from the film industry?
Mahesh: They were positive. Y.V.S. Chowdary gaaru called Ravi (the producer) from the theater and congratulated him after seeing the film. Lagadapati Sridhar gaaru called from Hyderabad after the platinum disc function; he also called up the producers and spoke to them at length about the movie... in fact, even when I spoke to him, we were talking about the re-recording for a long time. It's so nice to see your work getting some recognition and appreciation - specially from people in the industry.

TeluguCinema.Com wishes him all the best with his career.

Compiled and Edited by Nachaki