THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: From keyboard player to composer of background score and now a step closer to being music director, city boy Vivek is all set to make a mark in the film field.
The 24-year-old from Nettayam in Thiruvananthapuram is already a well-known name in the Tamil film world. Vivek, a sound engineer, first tried his luck as a keyboard player, a talent he acquired from childhood, with well-known music directors like Ouseppachan, Deepak Dev and Gopi Sundar.
“I assisted the music directors to compose background score in Malayalam films like ‘Anwar’, ‘Casanova’ and ‘Shikkar’ and the Bollywood movie ‘Aakrosh,’’’ said Vivek, who is now based in Chennai.
‘Kandahar’ in Malayalam was his first independent work. “It was Major Ravi who gave me the first chance to do background score for his film in 2010 and it was my first independent work,” Vivek said.
It was Kanal Kannan, the stunt master in Tamil, who gave Vivek the first chance to make his presence felt in Kollywood. In the Kanal Kannan-produced movie ‘Sankarankovil’, Vivek did the background score independently.
In ‘Ponnar Shankar’, an epic film penned by Karunanidhi and directed by Thiagarajan, Vivek did the background score with the maestro, Ilayaraja. “It was the first time that Ilayaraja did music for a film along with somebody else,” claimed Vivek.
Now, Vivek is waiting for what could be termed as a big break in his career. He has been approached by two filmmakers from Bollywood. “Both are mega projects. One is to do background score and the other for music as well as background music,” said Vivek, who is waiting for the confirmation of the work.
Vivek adds that though sound designing is his forte, he is still very much interested in playing the keyboard. But his greatest ambition is to become a music director and he is eagerly waiting for more opportunities from his mother tongue too.
Vivek, after completing his plus-two, graduated in sound engineering from the renowned Sound Tech Media in Chennai. It was Stephen Devasia, the popular keyboard player, who introduced Vivek to Manoj Kumar, who runs Sound Tech Media. Vivek also devotes time for doing music for advertisement films too.
He is the son of Krishnankutty and Vilasini.