From popular fast beat numbers like, ‘It’s the time to disco’ to heart-touching ones like ‘Maa’, music director Shankar Mahadevan has always been known for his versatility. A Tamilian based in Mumbai, Shankar started his career as a playback singer for A R Rahman in an award winning Tamil movie, ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’, after which he launched his album, ‘Breathless’, which brought him even more popularity.
Well versed in both Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, Shankar Mahadevan started composing songs with Ehsaan and Loy and the trio have composed for more than 50 movies, of which a majority of them were award winning movies.
Shankar Mahadevan was recently bestowed with the Lata Mangeshkar music award in the city. Expressing his happiness over receiving the award, he says, “I am very delighted and honoured on receiving this award. I am also grateful to Andhra Pradesh State Cultural Council.”
He further adds, “It is even more amazing as all the awards presented today were nominated by Lata ji herself. This is indeed great.”
Talking about Lata Mangeshkar, he says, “I love all of her songs. It would be really tough to have one favourite. One of the songs which I love is “Aaja re”, it’s a very beautiful song.”
Mentioning about his experience in Hyderabad, Shankar says, “I just love the city. I really like the plan, the setting, the diversity and everything. And there is so much youth presence in the city, which is just great to enjoy,” and adds, “And food is just great. I love the Hyderabadi cuisine, especially biryani.”
Talking about the Telugu film industry, he says, “I think Tollywood is one of the most prosperous in the country, be it audience, production value, sets and everything. It is very large scale and very much active. I think it’s doing great.”
On music directors down south, he says, “I think there are really talented music directors like Devi Sri Prasad, Mani Sharma, RP Patnik. They all have quite a lot of popular numbers in their kitty.”