There is space for experiments in music: Ravi Basrur

CHENNAI: In the last few years, Ravi Basrur’s songs have been ruling the roost even in remote pockets of India and among the Indian diaspora overseas. In the middle of a glorious career, the composer has made time to come up with his independent album titled Titan. The songs Every End is a Beginning and Roar Of a Tornado have gone on to become huge hits, and he is working on a few more songs for the album. “When it comes to a film album or a background score, the story is already fixed, and the music has to follow a certain pattern that is close to the narrative. I have been wanting to do music beyond films and compete with myself. Even in parties and mall spaces, we don’t hear any electronic music that is from India. There will be random music that is playing, and someone from another country will be getting a royalty. I realised that I need to use this space and take my work overseas. That gave birth to Titan,” begins Ravi.

He immediately reminisces about the music he made in Salaar. “If you listen to Salaar’s music, the emotion is Indian, but the presentation is Hybrid. It was then it struck me that there is a space here to experiment,” he adds. Ravi feels that music in India has not been synonymous only with films, but also hasn’t been consumed a lot by the younger generation. “When I started my career in films in 2005, the concept behind music was pretty much typical. One dance number, two melodies are what the albums were all about. Whereas around the same decade, any Western songs that were released were all experimental and had a lot of acceptance. That is why I came up with my own independent album. I am sure it would be accepted too. A person cannot live on biriyani all the time. It is okay to have idli someday and biryani the other day,” he laughs.

Ravi is clear that there is no mantra for success. “I have created electronic music with an Indian soul in this album. I see it like a tap of water that should flow in a good space to the right audience. I have now set the stage, and it has been received well. Now, I know I can keep experimenting. Moreover, the songs in Titan, unlike films, do not have a fixed outline. It will be the listeners who will decide what I will have to make next,” elaborates the composer.

He is currently working on NTRNeel’s music score and is also venturing into Tamil. “What I have learnt while working with Prashanth is that do not keep your ideas for the next day. Work on it immediately. Be it big or small project, we will have to give our best. When Salaar came, the audience felt that it wasn’t like KGF. They were different world altogether. Let us not be fixated,” concludes Ravi.