Twenty-three-year old G.V. Prakash Kumar (A.R. Rehman's nephew) is spreading his wings briskly. After his successful albums Ullasanga Utsahanga and Darling in Telugu and some notable work in Tamil, he is now looking forward to composing the music for Akshay Kumar starrer Joker and has also signed a project with Anurag Kashyap.
Talks are also on for an international project. How did he bag Joker ? Prakash had worked as a programmer during Jaan-e-mann directed by Shirish Kunder.
Since the duo shared a great rapport and wave length, the director resolved to have him as his music director for his next directorial venture. Prakash says after seeing Dev.D and Black Friday, he became a big fan of Anurag Kashyap.
Erandam Ulagam being directed by Selvaraghavan had him in and out and finally in again as the music director, but Prakash refuses to elaborate and just says, “There were many fluctuations in the script. Everything has been sorted out and we have finally held the project together.”
About 50 per cent of the film is complete and four songs out of six are ready. The young man says he loves being experimental as in movies like Madrasapattinam , Aadukalam .
He gets bored with scripts that have the regular song and dance; he needs something new that gives him a creative space and makes him freak out.
The soft spoken music composer has shown his streak of brilliance even as a child. He would paint, write poems and would attend all the extra curricular activities in school. When he was in the fifth standard, he stood first in an inter-state painting competition. He formed a band of musicians of his age and now after years they are all working together — Srihari, the sound engineer, Navin Iyer the flutist and Saindhavi a popular singer in Tamil (she sang Mamidi komma ki in Anish Kuruvilla's Avakai Biriyani ).
Apparently he is engaged to her and they will get married towards the end of next year.
He talks fondly of his fiancé — they have been good friends and she has been there for him through the past nine years. But why next year?
“I will finish my Hindi films by then and will stabilise, everything will fall in place,” he says.
Behind the steely reserve, there is a mature yet a very sensitive side to Prakash. He has seen the ups and downs in life very early; while in seventh standard, he saw his parents divorce; later he lived with his dad.
He adds, “Those five years, I wasn't visiting my mom I never got the support from my uncle's side. I had to come out and do everything on my own,” he adds wistfully but quickly states that success is very sweet if it is followed by hard work, pain and he will always remember those times.
He signs off, “If you are confident and happy about something then you should pursue it with passion.”
