I began closely observing the sounds I heard around me and became very interested, feeling a deep sense of connection to what I do,” says 25-year-old sound designer Raj Kumar. After finding this calling, he didn’t have to think too much about what he wanted to do. He graduated from Dr GRD College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore with a Visual Communication degree. There he learnt the basics of sound designing while working on his friends’ short films.
Since then, Raj has done more than 30 short films and assisted a senior sound designer in feature films for more than two years. Recently, his debut as an independent sound designer also took flight with the latest Malayalam hit Aanandam, “Even though it was my first film, I had great support and freedom from the entire crew,” says Raj, sharing his experiences from the sets.
But what Raj Kumar does in his free time is what makes him stand apart from the rest. He embarks on journeys to remote villages of Himachal Pradesh, the India-Nepal border, and such places in search of different sounds.
He says that he has a dream to create a library of sounds from all over India. “India has a lot of rare and unique sounds. Normally, the native sounds of Himachal Pradesh wouldn’t be heard anywhere else in the world. My dream is to create a library of such rare sounds from all around India,” explains Raj.
He is dedicated to this dream to the extent that he plans to keep adding to the library until his dying breath. He says, “It’s also a kind of spiritual sound trippin’, what I do with my travels, being in places like Varanasi, Haridwar, and recording the sounds and hymns around me.”
Sound project, that!
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