Thaman S, who is one of the busiest music directors in the country, turned 41 on November 16. He sat with CE and talked about many aspects of his work. Thaman is not only occupied with big-ticket films but also tied up with Telugu Indian Idol and being a guest at many events.
Explaining about his time management, he says, “I guess it’s God’s grace that I have a great team who support me well.” Thaman is scoring music for upcoming projects like Prabhas’ The Raja Saab, Pawan Kalyan’s OG, Ram Charan’s Game Changer, Balakrishna’s Daaku Maharaaj, Varun Dhawan’s Baby John, Sunny Deol’s Jaat, and Siddu Jonnalagadda’s Telusu Kada. He is also composing partial background music for one of the most anticipated films of the year, Pushpa 2: The Rule.
You’re doing so many films; how are you keeping yourself inspired?
Earlier, I used to take up routine commercial films and then people used to say that Thaman’s work is repetitive but now I am being selective. Inspiration for music comes from the script. The story will get the music out of you. For instance, Game Changer is a complete commercial film. Shankar sir is doing a full commercial film after a long time.
I am also doing Telusu Kada with Neeraja Kona, and that’s a love story. OG is a proper gangster film. As far as the constant comparisons with Tamil film music go, OG will be our answer to that from Telugu cinema. Daaku Maharaaj is a new world. It’s a fresh world that Bobby created.
Daaku... has only three songs. And Prabhas’ The Raja Saab has a pakka massy album. We are even planning to have a remix song. Right now, I am focusing on keeping my plate diversified. I have a dal, roti, curd, curry... I want to do different kinds of films rather than repeating myself. Because each film is different, getting into that headspace makes for an interesting challenge.
How did you get Game Changer and having worked with director Shankar as an actor in Boys, how did the shift happen?
Believe it or not, it took me 20 years to travel from Shankar sir’s eyesight to his ears. I used to tell him that my thing is music, not acting. It took a while for him to notice my work. He watched Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo multiple times during the lockdown. And then, Dil Raju sir, one day met me and gave a curious laugh, saying, “Shankar sir called you to Chennai.” My body started sweating when I heard the news.
That’s how I got it into Game Changer. Shankar sir is doing magic with the film. Even if you watch the teaser, it’s very colourful. It’s been a while since we watched such beautiful songs on screen. They often say that Shankar sir pumps too much money into films but for many directors, that budget does not reflect on screen. That’s not the case with Shankar sir; you will see the budget in every frame.
Both of your films are clashing at the Sankranti box office. How did it happen?
It was unplanned. We were sure that Game Changer will come out in December and Daaku Maharaaj will be out during Sankranti. But things didn’t go as per plan. And there was a lot of pressure from fans to release Game Changer during Sankranti. Poor Dil Raju gaaru, took a lot of pressure. Even I am as surprised about the clash. This is not the first time for me, anyway. So, I am managing with my experience.
How do you score music for each film distinctly, and do you have freedom to compose more than asked for?
End of the day, the visual inspires music. No matter how hard I score, if the film’s material is pale, my music also won’t stand out. I can’t score for Bhagavanth Kesari the way I scored for Akhanda. After I saw the footage of Akhanda, it blew my mind.
My remuneration was initially around `1 crore for the film, but after we started the work, I knew the film needed more than usual. We brought around 300 artists from around the country to live score. The budget escalated to around `3 crores, but the producers were more than willing to spend. They got huge returns for the film. Even Boyapati gaaru was supportive that’s why I like him a lot.
These days, there’s criticism that music mixing levels are dominating vocals. What’s your reaction to that?
For each film, it varies. For instance, in a film like Aravinda Sametha, there needs to be clear vocal. We need to capture that folk singing well. But for a film like OG, we are going for a Michael Jackson-style mixing. The vocals are low, and there’s a rock feel to it. It varies from film to film. And moreover, it’s not the music director’s job to decide sound levels.
There’s a sound engineer and a Dolby mastering engineer too. They take the final call on setting the sound levels. People have this misconception that music directors are responsible. We are not. We deliver music, and that’s where our work ends.
Another reason you might be feeling this issue is because in many theatres, they replaced with Qube systems but did not upgrade the speakers. Many single-screen theatres have old speakers, and they are not well-equipped to today’s technicalities. A few sophisticated theatres have worked on the acoustics well; there you won’t face this problem.
In Pushpa 2, what’s your contribution exactly?
I watched the film. It is bonkers. Whatever the makers are expecting, that film will reach those heights. I only composed music for 3 reels in the film, in the beginning portions of the first half. I started on November 5, and they asked me to complete by November 20, so I could only do so much. I know that this is not a healthy work style. Even I spoke about this before — one film can’t have multiple music directors. But this is purely circumstantial. It was Bunny (Allu Arjun) gaaru’s call. Me and him have a common string.
We worked on three films: Race Gurram, Sarrainodu and Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo. All three films turned out to be musical blockbusters. All 18 songs were superhits. So, we developed common energy. That’s why he probably called me. For some requests, I can’t reject. But all the music directors for Pushpa 2 are coordinating with each other on a WhatsApp group. End of the day, we are all children of cinema. We want the best for the producers.
What’s next for you, and what do you still feel like exploring in music?
I still feel I have so much more to do. I have done 170 films now, but there’s more scope. Now, there’s globalisation happening. Tomorrow, we might collaborate with Japanese musicians. In fact, we are doing that for OG. We are collaborating with Korean musicians for Prabhas film. This cross-border artistic integration is something I am hugely looking forward to. We can create history there.
In fact, I still feel bad because Michael Jackson was supposed to sing in Shankar sir’s Robo. Rahman sir even signed him on but then he passed away, unfortunately. I am looking forward to such collaborations. One thing’s for sure, Telugu cinema is going global. And there’s no doubt in it. My work is just getting started. (laughs)