 Did you do a clap? Go ahead. Thank you so much for sitting down with us sir. It's been a it's been about a three-year journey for us in terms of actually Indian cinema and general and Indian culture that we started on our channel and you've been at the forefront of that obviously. So it's it's been an absolute honor to be able to sit down with you not only because you're also probably the first Indian artist that most people in America were exposed to and as long as a millionaire in that but now that we've been able to explore you even more it's really exciting to be able to sit down and talk with you. Well first thing I want to talk about is actually a video we saw not too long ago I think it was called cultural renaissance and your passion to bring to light Indian artists and get the world to realize the amount of talent coming out of India and that's one of our passions as well. So if you can talk a little bit more about that. Yeah I think coming being born in South India then you know making it North India that that is such a big divide even though India we feel one but languages cultures you know divide away so some good things get left out in mainstream yeah it's like you know the Hindi industries people call it Bollywood which I don't like yeah right yes it's a derivative and so that gets a lot of publicity but then there are regional films industries like Malayalam and Telugu and Tamil and Kannada and Bengali and Punjabi and this goes on and these regional has a lot of gems in it you know about classical music about Indian culture yes so even the folk artists you know if you go into the deeper folk they have great you know humanity in the songs they have a sense of because I think it was 90s early 90s I bought this 150 series of all the world cultures even though I couldn't listen to everything but I kind of got fascinated by the enormity of how many cultural you know traditions of the end music yes and in the way they sing in nuances how they enunciate a word and all that stuff so I think when Marja guys came to me I said I want you to spearhead this one I said I was gladly accepted that's that's what I've been and we have been talking for like five six years I've been telling them like you know you should expand the listener base of you know folk music and probably give it give them in the way where they can appreciate it because raw stuff can now be appreciated right yes needs to be presented and you guys are doing a great job so thank you so much it is our passion I mean before the channel started we've always been celebrators of artistry and it's really opened our minds and what we want to see other people in the west in particular open their minds to the broader artistry that's outside of what in America they're most accustomed to like when Slumdog came out I think everybody was listening it was on the hit charts was Jai Ho I mean everybody listened to that and knew of that but what they don't know is what you just mentioned all of the regional aspects and the artistry from those places is that you grew up obviously in music your father was a composer you grew up in the studio but very early on you also started to study western music so was world music something you were passionate about from a very early age or was there a point where it started to expand for you in your both appreciation and composition I think you know when when you have something mainstream it's a bit but I go play in the studios where you know southern folk music and classical then you know cinema music right then you just want to be away from it in your listening so I always went out and I was listening to John Williams and Angelus and then you know Latin bands and then Chinese records and then Bach you know the switch on Bach Wendy Carlos yeah which is my favorite so these things actually taught me that there's a world outside my little South Indian folk music world which I was almost like the capital of that because all four industries were together and my dad was there like there'll be Malayalam recording here there'll be Telugu recording here there'll be Kannada so I grew up with that and then later strangely we were backing L Shankar you know was a Shakti yeah John Clark when he came in with his wife Carol in that time and she said can you guys back us up so we had a little studio fan so you know traveling with him because we adored Shakti we adored Shankar we he did a record and then that record actually three days I was there in the production how they were like doing things you know completely you know right not the way we do right and they did one song for three days and then in in pockets I said because I was I come from industry where there's seven to one or two right seven to one the song has to be done and mastered right done completed mixed and mastered right so it's like with all artistry right it seems like the film industry does that too it's like just pump that stuff out yeah yeah so when I came I said I will purposely do a song for six months and let's see what who's so not that I realized that when you do something instinctively you can go back and say oh I can do that better I can have a better backing I can have a better arrangement I can change the harmony there I can bring in a chorus there so all these ideas come later when you instinctively do you just do you want to finish it right you don't want to complete it right right right and the completion comes from a lot of listening a lot of tweaking and then finally it arrives and then then it goes to people and people hate it why is this like this why is this because it takes such a process they realize oh my god no it's it's something nice about it I want to go back to and listen to them in three weeks and four weeks oh I love it yeah so this has been my life story yeah yeah on that on that note uh you're a lot of artists have a certain style we've always been so impressed obviously by you um but the fact that you don't have a particular style you like to change it up a lot and basically come from you know that's an amazing thing working in India nobody's judging you like oh this guy is doing rock and roll that's not his forte when he's doing south Indian classical that's not his forte he's doing you know classical arrangement right and that's what so nobody's judging you as long as it sounds good to the ears they're very open yeah unlike when you come to the West Bank you put a funk and you put a world music that is that right right yeah they go into that right they go into you know research and I feel like threatened by all that's right it does sound good and then does it feel in one world today can you just pinpoint in the airport that this person is this nationality these are from the you know mother and father of this the world is changing yeah thanks a new world is being born yes I'm adapting to that I've been adapting for for 30 years yeah it was it was actually a song that we just reacted to a couple weeks ago it was this amazing jazz composition that you did it was this amazing obviously video but the song was this jazz composition with and it was absolutely yes yeah one of my favorites but yeah yeah you you kind of brought this whole jazz fusion to do a believe it was Tamil film and how did people actually it was a the main character was a Christian you know in that and then he was a fisherman so I said like Christian you know the music stuff actually expands people go to church right and they sing choir harmonies and so I just took liberty of going a little more further because I've seen black church and sure I've seen I've been a boston and all this stuff and then I said why can't we do this and then let's see they hated it's fine yeah it was okay well that touches a little bit on I wanted to ask you like every time we hear your music my thought is what's your what's your process for the creation and I know it would be different because you have done everything if you if you if you look up this man you'll see every possible musical expression from tv shows and jingles to classical music in both eastern and western styles to jazz to blues you pretty much can write everything but is your process about the same when you're actually writing something I don't differentiate I feel like if it goes with the story yeah I just even if it goes slightly out this goes slightly out I can pull it in if it's completely out then people the director is gonna say yeah it's gonna not gonna match but everybody wants a change everybody's the mundaneness of life is horrible so you just want to break it and then even if it's at least we're trying instead of just saying no this is what will work you know not you're not boring people we're willing to experiment we're not willing to take challenges even now and sometimes you know composing a musical it's shake a couple and then we we brought a rye kind of music in it and everybody was like quiet for two days and then slowly said hey I love it for those two days you didn't know I was like okay it's got rejected they didn't like it stuff right so I found a singer who was around and then he signed something I said like why can't I push him to do this song I don't see what happened he doesn't know a word of English so we had to teach him to that little accent French yeah right wow so we've got the pleasure of talking to usajizaka who's saying yes um and he said something that was so interesting to him he was also that he was but we he said something so interesting because we asked him about being you know he's he's obviously a master of his craft but we asked him about it and and his process and he answered he's I don't consider myself a master which is you know ridiculous because he is but he explained that obviously it's a more of a relationship between him and the tabla and and that do you could do being a master yourself um and you are genius I I can say that um do you consider your process to kind of the same to music is it I did a constant seeking constant seeking of saying you know when we try probably find it things or do which five become amazing five or six become amazing and it's like a blessing every I I think it's a blessing we you can try you know a thousand years but still not crack something but if you get one line to you know linger in your heart people's heart I think that's a blessing yeah because there's somewhere deep there's a soul which is actually connecting to all the other souls yes and for that you are to constantly be cleansing yourself your mind the way you think about because what do you think actually manifests yeah to the song yes to the people yes and you can't fake it you can't be an evil person and try to do a very good song right sure there's there's goodness in all of us and I feel like how can you enhance that stuff how can you trigger that how can you manifest it in another way when people are listening to it yeah and you know transport people yeah so I have a two-part question in that regard yeah one's a quick answer one's probably longer the first one is just yes or no do you ever experience writer block as an artist I you know pressure sometimes that was my second part yeah so pressure to create the pressure at least now it's better before it used to be we start in March then I do Rajnikanth movies Rajnikanth's big stuff right oh yeah so that this movie has to release by Diwali that's it Diwali is the big yeah so now you have time so and then have to do the song that with the background and you know the electricity used to be very funky in my place I used to bring two generators and in the in the street that used to be stationed and look it was hell and then I've been doing three movies so the other director said me my stuff is coming Diwali to air so it was hell so I hate all these festivals because they used to give me hell right whether it's Diwali or New Year or Pongal because oh my god because I could never enjoy but now it's much more leisure you know I because I started traveling I mean so now he's busy so let's go a little early let's do this stuff so things which take longer are better for me yeah good um I want something on that well you talked about sorry you talked about writer's block yeah yeah writer's block is um um yeah we all have that because the pressure of we have to deliver hits it's not like there's no choice because you're getting paid yeah for a hit right right go to heaven you gotta get it yeah so how do you do it so sometimes I the one trick I do is always fasting sometimes you fast you know all the bad energies go away and then you're more in one with yourself so that helps me to think oh this is right this other you're clouded by sometimes yeah that makes sense and you're the first first artist I've heard and I'm sure there's many that do that which are the first artists I've heard that has taken it to that place of that personal introspection and practices that you do that makes absolute sense to me that that would be something you do and you find that it brings a release the the pressure to not only produce a certain number of things do you feel any pressure at all by the fact that you now have a a quite an astonishing when people don't know who you are I say to them he's the John Williams of India and they know what that means in terms of what you've accomplished because you're a master yeah you multiple do you feel pressure in terms of what you know fans and people expect you to produce does that ever come into play in your mind as far as I know what I have to live up to in terms of what they expect of me I mean that's a good pressure yeah I mean as long as you don't be ignored who cares yeah good answer that's true so that pressure pushes you to work hard out yeah then go deeper spend more time in music others you'll be holiday you know I got a lot of money right right let's take time off the constant uh churning out of music comes from that pressure where the explanation so what is he gonna do next yeah is he gonna do something great or is he gonna mess up stuff so you know that that pressure is good for even for me yeah and the day you feel like oh my god everything is boring I've done it all there's nothing more to explore if I feel like I should like I should quit yeah yeah and for me that it's actually expanding I feel like there's a notion of knowledge to be learned yeah you know in orchestration good in in lyrics and good we want you to keep going yeah please do it feels so frustrating I like you're so old and then still you have to learn oh my god sometimes the people straightening sure so we've heard so many insane stories about yourself but about like Rajasar and and people coming to him like I think we heard this one story that an entire film had already been shot okay and he needed like they were like we the score like or didn't work or something and they're like we need you to compose an entirely new score for this film that's already been shot and it's something in like a some ridiculous amount of days yeah like stone days or something there's obviously a thousand story of Rajasar and stories like that but what's like the craziest thing a filmmaker has asked you something like that and they can remain name-whistles yes you want to name them well even even Slavendog was you know it was given to me like it was the even the Jai Ho song that you so short from another song so I made the song saw the visuals I made that song and then I made the whole soundtrack I'm assuming obviously the same metronome yeah absolutely you have you can beat match and then you can stretch things and and then he started I said I told him one thing I told him I want to do other music I don't because I that's how I've been doing all the songs and so 450 films so he said if you have the time do it and that's how that came out I had to now he's given me a timer if if I don't do it if you something else okay so I had to replace everything like one by one you took out the temp and he put this one in wow that's what MIS song was lovely and you know I would work with her yeah on this so that's that's fine but most of the stuff was like boom okay that's how do I go then he said this one wow so how about these three ideas oh I like this one can you change this you know can you add more strings to it wow wow the reason that is so shocking is not just because of the artistic challenge but the fact that that is such a celebrated and Oscar-winning score that's amazing that that's really okay the other thing you're to pass the fire trial by fire then you get yeah yeah then you get the next one that was the trial by fire if I chickened out I said no I don't have time I don't think I can do it yeah we just reacted to the song that we've been told was originally a 16 minute song and then it was shortened to six and I'm an I'm a name I'm a name I'm a name I'm a name I'm a name I'm a name forget it yeah yeah yeah yeah the name of it very kind of yeah that's it and someone had told us this is going to be very different for and it started we're like this sounds like air roman and then did you have as much fun making that as it sounds yeah okay it sounded like you had fun yeah because you know what happened literally sometimes you have to be ready for the happy accidents you uh I had the stuff the money I was there then karate car was there and I said something's missing something's missing and then accidentally I moved it and my mouth slipped I went on the chorus uh-huh I said wow so that point you know the coin bag I had an accident accident grab it yes you gotta grab it you can't say no that's what that's what I meant I don't care it sounds like it works so we have to be open about happy accidents we have to be open about what could go wrong which will be the actually the right thing yeah sometimes you ask for a voice and you don't get that voice somebody else comes in and the whole song takes another yeah for instance there was a song in 2.0 and about the birds and you know that whole so the director wanted you know another famous singer so I said something told me like it needs something raw like Baba Mal coming singing because it's about earthiness and so this other guy who's I've seen I've been seeing for like 15 years he's to uh do he was hanging out and with my mother's you know the spiritual students and all the stuff and he was there I want to sing a song for you like I looked at my assistant can you just take my the stuff which I was saying put the lyrics which they said and make him sing that one I came back and I forgot about it two days later when I listened to that oh my god that's the voice yeah exactly like what I want and then I called him back and treated me to the whole thing yeah and sometimes you know you you see and then there are signs you have to take yeah why is this guy standing here this time yeah yeah yeah it was like morning five o'clock sure he did something and he was standing there so that's Baba Bakia who that's an amazing thing incredible very good human being wow um so on um I wanted to ask a question to to a composer when you're doing a song for an Indian film and you have certain stars who really bring the energy like let's say you have a Ranveer or the noosh bravo deva whatever right people that have extreme energy yeah does that ever do you ever know that before going in and you write the energy into it as opposed to somebody who like somebody who can't dance or bring the energy as well sometimes you know it goes to the wrong the wrong person but I go with the director's vision because the director has to live with the song for like thousand times just to listen to it get ideas so we'll know exactly when if he likes it he's gonna go like working in Shankar he would give us whole energy into one song like a movie what he does in a movie you do oh the film I yeah oh my god incredible I even from the beginning everything's a spectacle yes so yeah so now I'm doing your film with Tiger and he's so good at dancing so yeah Ahmad Khan is a you know director and a choreographer too so we've been vibing and said yeah I love that little you know motive you put that can you repeat it so that's fun yeah yeah it's not like I've finally finished them you know it's always back and forth yeah yeah do you have a preference and it may change from time to time of what you do creatively like do you prefer to just write do you prefer being in the studio and recording do you prefer live performances tell me everything yeah it's all pretty equal yeah yeah because it is uh you know it's a gift we get that people are waiting to see you and perform so we we try to even not take that you know easily we just work so much want to give them surprises and we give it we start doing different arrangements so that either they can listen to a CD or you know the streaming thing yeah so what are what are they going to expect there so let's give them the same thing but in a completely musical way so we also enjoy the process it's not like a job okay give me the cards let me play that so everybody's put a task given me yeah if you just go slip off you don't practice you'll be humiliated on stage so on um you're an Oscar winner in case you didn't know um but we we often want um you know stuff to get noticed or nominated that deserves to be so people around the world can see the talent that is coming from India and oftentimes people say that we put too much importance on the Oscars do you think that's true or do you think it's a vessel that can be used to help uh it is a definitely a vessel because you know but I have been willing the Oscars I can go to any part of the world yeah yes I can go on as a composer and they'll respect otherwise sometimes some traditions are not respected they have this pre-prejudice in the mind oh you're Indian you can only do that right you are you're they have that right I mean it's okay we have that also everybody has all that prejudices but I think the Oscar helped me to go to any part of the world now for Dubai Exports you know building a studio for me for the Fiddles studio according to my specs there's a whole scoring stage with the whole thing I've been mentoring an orchestra called the Fiddles Orchestra women from that part of 23 different nationalities so the all these stuff is they also need something because a big army of people are working towards and everybody needs to know why is this guy getting a studio why is this guy being you know like one movie I did the director was not of Indian movie I did I did this so the director was like always called a little bit like why is he called and then after the movie you know after I scored it um when we were sitting there was one gentleman who came and said yeah a very good score and then he was very cold and he looked at me yeah you know who this guy is he's the guy who said don't use you get a restaurant composo no way that was the criteria yeah so he came and and tell that I'm I'm so so that's why I was so confused wow so against so many things like yeah it's not an easy one yeah but what is anything you're doing right now that we and the big big stupid family you would want us to know about whether it's something you're involved in philanthropically or creatively what is it you would like us to know and support because we want to support it what you're doing uh actually there's so many things I'm right yeah take as many as you want okay so the yeah so the minds conservative you know the students are amazing and I've just realized that it just takes nurturing and training to make an artist a genius yeah from everybody so you see all this piano players coming in two of the kids have won you know so many awards last year during the lockdown they send the piano and they won the gold and platinum and bronze again and again again like four different competitions you know that happened bro comes with the lydian you don't need enough for yes he won the one yes yes yep so it's all that all that good things happening right now actually I've finished my movie 99 songs it's on Netflix it's on Netflix yes then I've written and produced that one so I'm directing a I've directed a sensory cinematic experience for lemask it's virtual reality and sensory and sensory yeah it's a wholesome experience which it just jaw-dropping for all of us because the way you feel when you put that people anywhere in the world every nationality you've seen it with jaw drops yeah and they have kind of come in so it's very hard to distribute the current stuff so I hope that I can install that and get a right outlet so people can enjoy that so I've played to my friend I want to play to you yeah absolutely wonderful wonderful thank you and to finish it off here so thank you so much for talking as you want to ask you a few random questions here coffee or chai coffee coffee your favorite classical composer buck your favorite indian film any region one of one of your favorite oh my god okay one of the one of one of like okay yes yeah oh yes yes and why because it took two hours to make it they still made it yeah when you look at it every everything is console every dialogue every song yeah and every action you see that they're so vulnerable yeah but they've come up with stuff favorite a hollywood film oh one of the yeah it's not a music yeah and what is one piece of device you'd give yourself starting out on roger if you could go back and talk to you back in 1992 no advice actually I still feel like such a big blessing and I got one of India's best director with first producer whatever I wanted and exposure of love and awards I got asked I don't think I still feel unworthy but many things well thank you so much for talking to us it's been an absolutely huge honor for us we we I think explored maybe three percent of your work and it feels like there's still a world of more that we haven't explored yet so thank you so much for talking to us and for just sharing your talent with the world and hope more people contribute yeah and I one of the things that we've noticed because we've done approximately 25 interviews or so and there's one criteria across the board with every artist whether they're a singer they're a dancer they're an actor a director a musician it's this attribute of deep genuine humility and every single one of them that you are an example of as well um I know humble people don't like necessarily hearing how you know why are we hummels we don't know whether we can do the next thing that's that's that's what I'm talking about so thank you so much thank you for being with us it's been a pleasure talking to you man pleasure thank you