VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:
Sound designer means he is the director of the sound. This means that he is going to take all the responsibilities of sound in terms of music and noise that is required for a film including dialogues, folly, nat sound, ambience noise, and all other kinds of sound including background score and songs.
When it comes to a music director, there are two kinds- one who does songs for a film and the other who does music and background score for films. At a particular time, the same music director can do both. Like in the case of AR Rahman, he creates music, songs, and the background score as well, and in fact, he even sings for the same movie.
Composers, on the other hand, are people who compose music. For instance, a music director explains the pattern of a song to a composer, if he wants a certain symphony or instrument to be used the composer does it for the music director.
We get artistic and aesthetic satisfaction when we do regional movies. This is where we get complete freedom and can go to any level of imagination when we do regional movies. Most of these regional movies are now representing India in various film festivals across the globe. That's the reason why it is our responsibility to support regional cinema.
Q. How do you look at a script and sense where music should fit in?
While reading a script, certain ideas come to our mind. We write down what kind of sound is required for that particular scene.
Q. You have been a part of numerous Bollywood movies and at the same time, you're also doing regional cinema and documentaries. How different are Bollywood and Regional Movies in terms of sound designing?
A. We get artistic and aesthetic satisfaction when we do regional movies. This is where we get complete freedom and can go to any level of imagination when we do regional movies. Most of these regional movies are now representing India in various film festivals across the globe. That's the reason why it is our responsibility to support regional cinema.
Indeed a great moment for me and one of the best things that happened in my entire career. After spending about 15 years in the industry, I have received such a great invitation, so now I am finally a member of the Oscars and I have a right to vote.
In Bollywood, most of the films that come out are for a commercial purpose. Those movies are for a different kind of audience. Movies like PK, Kick, Kaabil, or even Highway all have a different set of audience and we have to design the sound with a distinctive approach and perspective keeping in mind the kind of audiences these Bollywood films cater to.
Q. Your films 'Village Rockstars' and 'Ishu' are creating a lot of buzz in the festival circuits. In terms of sound designing how different are the two films?
Both of the movies are regional films and both are small budget movies that don't have any money in terms of production value. But both are aesthetically rich. Village Rockstars has various time periods in the film. It has winter, monsoon, flood, and also the situation after the floods. So lots of natural changes can be seen within a film. And when nature changes sound also changes. Since Village Rockstar is very raw, I tried to create a very raw and realistic sound for the film.
Whereas in Ishu, we have used a background score, which is not present in Village Rockstar, and it doesn't have music. Since there's background score in Ishu, I had to balance the sound and design it along with the music so that both the sound and music can dissolve together and enhance the situation to another level.
Q. How is the software and hardware that are used in Bollywood different from the regional films?
A. We're using the same technology and same working platform for both Bollywood and Regional cinema. We use pro-tools, which is a Mac-based software for our sound.
Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja . The movie was based on a story which was set in 1795. There were lots of action sequences in the movie, which involved arrow and gun fighting with the British. So that was one of the toughest films I have ever done as far as regional movies are concerned. And this movie also gave me a National Award.
Watch here: Trailer of Village Rockstar
Watch here: Trailer of ISHU