Last year, as music album ‘Hip Hop Tamizhan’ garnered hits by the thousands on YouTube, little did the lead singer Adhi know that they were being watched by one of the top music companies. Soon, he got a call from them saying that they were interested in working with his band Hip Hop Tamizha. They kept their word — Sony Music recently approached Adhi to do a promotional song for Sony Pictures Entertainment’s The Smurfs 2 .
“I couldn’t believe it,” says 23-year-old Adhi in a telephone interview from Mumbai. The first movie for which he has composed music is a Hollywood production! He has written the lyrics and composed music for the song which was recorded in Mumbai. Jeeva Beatz from the band has done the music production. Titled ‘Na na na’, the track will be used to promote the movie in India.
“It’s an up-tempo party track,” explains Adhi. “The lyrics are based on the theme ‘Be who you are’, in tune with the theme of the movie.” The track features the voices of nine children from the reality show ‘Indian Idol Junior’ in collaboration with Adhi’s raps.
Adhi was amazed by the professionalism of the children. “We completed the recording in a day,” he says. “I planned to befriend them on the first day…but before we knew it, we finished the song. I have given each of the nine kids a line to sing. The following day, we shot the video. It shows the children dressed as Smurfs with interspersed animated characters from the movie.”
Adhi plans to compose music for his first film as an actor — “It is on the cards. But Smurfs happened before that,” he says. Of course, the rapper has left his band’s signature on the song. It has a line in Tamil to make the words ring out on the international stage. “I made sure there was a Tamizh line.” They want to make youngsters realise that it is “cool to speak in Tamil”. And the line? It’s ‘Nesippen uyir ulla varai Tamizh mannai — I will love my Tamil soil till there’s life in me’
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s The Smurfs 2 is releasing in cinemas on August 2 in 3D. It is being released in English and Hindi. The lyrics for the Hindi version of the song have been written by Pinky Poonawala.
