Once in a blue moon comes a Telugu music album that you want to listen to in loop. Shravan’s debut feature film album, Alias Janaki, is one of those whose songs are worth giving into some ear-worming. What’s surprising is Shravan turned composer by a quirk of fate than by intent. If things had gone his way, he would have been a national level basketball player/swimmer or an IPS officer.
Shravan was pursuing his bachelor degree in psychology when he suffered a health setback. To cheer him up, his cousin introduced him to a software programme through which he could learn music. “I grew up listening to music. My dad and I would visit music shops and buy audio cassettes, a huge number of them. We had more than 1000 cassettes,” says Shravan. A huge fan of A.R. Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music, Shravan used the software and learnt to compose.
“I would spend hours on the system and learn. That was seven years ago,” says Shravan. He isn’t well versed with classical music and earlier, couldn’t describe the nuances of each raga. But make him listen to a song in a particular raga and he could compose a different piece using the same raga and also identify similar songs. Shravan’s compositions grew better with experience and he began composing tracks and roping in likeminded friends to sing for him. Shravan and his friend Karthik collaborated for the O Prema track of the short film Anukokunda. “I had no connections with the film industry. The O Prema track helped me get noticed. Through a common friend, I later met producer Neelima Tirumalasetti. She heard my compositions and signed me for Alias Janaki. Theirs is a well known production house and they could have signed any established composer, from Yuvan Shankar Raja to Devi Sri Prasad. I am indebted they chose me,” says Shravan.
For Alias Janaki, Shravan used a few of his earlier compositions. “Koncham Koncham was a demo track. For each song, I had a few versions and we selected the best,” he says. Some of the singers in this album have been singing for Shravan for quite some time now. The reception to Alias Janaki’s music has Shravan both excited and nervous. Excited he is since he’s already signed his next film, a rom-com titled Prema Ishq Kadhal and he’s nervous since he feels it’s time to fine-tune his skills with some formal training in classical music. “Music is everything to me. There’s music playing in my house almost round the clock,” he says.
