THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sooraj Santhosh hardly knew what was in store while stepping into the recording studio of music director G V Prakash Kumar in Chennai. The city boy who made his debut in Malayalam through the recent flick ‘Second Show’ starring Dulquar Salman already has a couple Telugu films to his credit. He made his entry in the Telugu industry through ‘Darling’ in 2010.
“After listening to my song in ‘Darling’, Nikhil Rajan, music director of ‘Second Show’ invited me to the film. By that time, I had two songs in Telugu, one for ‘Darling’ and the other scored by Manikanth Kadri in ‘Villagelo Vinayakudu’. Sooraj, by then, had gained a strong foothold in the music industry by singing for numerous albums and jingles, one of the noted jingles being the popular advertisement of Nalli Silks. He had also sung for documentaries, tele films and much more.
While accepting the fact that youngsters receive more opportunities in Tamil and Telugu, he cites reason for this trend. “In those languages, more number of films are released every year. Therefore the number of songs are also more. Thus so many youngsters get opportunity to sing in the movies,” he observes.
“Meanwhile, the situation here is changing. Unlike before, more youngsters are getting chances to showcase their musical talent in films,” he adds.
He says language is no barrier for a singer and singing in multiple languages is not a very difficult task. ”While singing, music is significant. The tune, orchestration and the composition method matter most. We must understand how the composer wish that song to be sung by the singer,” he says.
Born to a family that does not hold any musical background, his mother made the boy join music classes to learn Carnatic vocal lessons at the age of seven seeing his interest in it. According to the singer, his passion for music started during his school days. “I was surrounded by a set of music loving friends. Some of them are still with me in Chennai,” he says.
As he grew up, this ardent devotion towards music made him shift his base from the city to Chennai. There, he had numerous album recordings while continuing his music practice. Still he is B Grade artist with Akashvani and a winner of the national level light music competition conducted by them in 2006. Now he is under the tutelage of flautist Kudamaloor Janardhanan. He has been a vocalist with Ashram Oriental Rock, a seven member Indo-Austrian band, and is just back from a European trip. His dream and destination seems cinema as he speaks,
“I know that lot many emerging talents are there in the industry. Yet I prefer to be with the industry and no where else,” he smiles. Now he has received some good offers in Malayalam but doesn’t want to reveal them as of now.
He is well-supported by his family comprising father Santhosh Kumar, senior administrative assistant with the forest department, mother Jayakumari, a teacher and younger brother Dheeraj, an engineering student.