For Pravin Mani, music is his soul. Having done the background score and music for a number of films, Pravin is now busy with a couple of projects including his next flick, Chikku Bukku, in which he has composed a couple of songs apart from scoring the background music. If a director finds the background score of a film is not that great, Pravin, who is well- known for composing background scores comes to their rescue. Having been associated with the Mozart of Madras, AR Rahman for more than a decade, Pravin says, “Rahman is my good friend and gives me a lot of space to work. He trusts my instincts just like how I trust his. He composes different tunes for each and every movie.” Among other films, Pravin has collaborated with Rahman in Ghajini(Hindi), Slumdog Millionaire, Delhi 6 and the latest Enthiran. In Enthiran, Pravin has rapped and programmed the Chitti Dance Showcase. Talking about the project, Pravin says, “Working on it was very exciting. We made sure that the rap went well with the film as well as with the audience.”
While composing the songs as well as scoring the background music are usually done by the same music director in the South, there are separate people for the same in North. Pravin opines, “Composing a background score is a technical job. You have to make sure that it goes well with the mood of the film. In Chikku Bukku, Colonial Cousins have composed the songs and I’ve done the background score, apart from composing two songs. Whether it’s Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi or English, I’ve enjoyed working on the background score and it is challenging.” Pravin has scored music for Tamil films like Little John, Perarasu and has done background scores for Hollywood projects like Deepa Mehta’s Bollywood Hollywood.
For him, scoring background music for a comedy is a nightmare. “You can compose tunes for love, sentiment and action scenes, but scoring music for comedy is tricky,” he grins. Pravin wants to set up a record label and promote fresh talents. “There is immense potential. Many of them come up with good English songs and I want to promote them in the west. Just like how Jai Ho became popular all over the world, we can take our own English songs to the West,” says Pravin, who was once associated with a number of bands.