HYDERABAD: One of the few names that pop up when one talks about the Tollywood music scene is MM Keeravani who has been in the industry for more that 25 years. A calm and humble personality, whose voice, is deep yet soothing made a visit to Annapurna International School of Film and Media on Wednesday for inaugurating their sound recording studio.
Keeravani, who won a national award for creating music for period film Annamayya in Telugu, also treated the students to shloka that was recorded on the studio’s new equipment.
In almost an hour long session, addressing the current batch of students, the industry veteran touched upon a lot of aspects pertaining to the film industry.
“I am jealous of all you guys,” he said pointing out to the state-of-the-art facilities and also various resources that are available for students these days.
Speaking about the changes in the film industry, the 53-year old feels that it has plenty of opportunities for everyone.
“It is a plus point. In earlier days, people didn’t know whom to approach when they wanted to learn an instrument or set foot in creative fields,” he said, adding that everything is much more democratic now, with a lot of sources.
However, he observed that people today are less patient.
“We want things to be done quickly. Though there is nothing wrong with it, there is a human element that goes missing, when we do things quickly.”
Providing valuable inputs about various aspects that go into creating music for a subject or a situation, he gave students an insight into his working style.
“Different directors have different requirements. Sometimes. they won’t be able to tell you exactly what they want. The one thing I practise is ask the directors to give me at least five samples of how they like their songs to be. I find the common element among them and start working on my story,” he explained.
He pointed out that listeners are only interested in how a song sounds.
And shared a funny yet interesting formula that a friend in the industry adopts.
“Though I was surprised, I was later convinced with this formula used by lyricist Anatha Sriram. He says that as long as the music is loud or sung in high pitch, then it makes an impact,” shared the composer in a lighter vein who believes that the simpler the tune is, the more appealing it will be.
Addressing rumours about his retirement after his recent post on social networking site Facebook, he clarified, “I might end one thing, but it may be the start to something else.”
The music director who has composed music for movies across all genres like Ramadasu, Vedham, Magadheera, Sye and so on, will be composing music for the much talked about Bahubali, directed by SS Rajamouli.