Music composer Ghibran does not know when his next film album will release. The reason for the uncertainty is because he has planned a unique initiative — an audio drive, as he likes to call it — that will see him driving from Chennai (India) to five other countries, and releasing one song in each of them.
Ghibran undertakes this road journey for his upcoming film, aptly titled Chennai 2 Singapore . “I was doing a random Google search on Chennai to Singapore — just to kill time, actually — and navigation routes also suggested options by road. I casually mentioned it to the director (Abbas Akbar), and we started discussing the idea of doing a road trip. Slowly, it grew stronger in our minds.”
The team will embark on the audio drive tomorrow in Chennai, and hopes to cover Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. “The minute our tyres touch a country, a song from the film will be released,” he says.
Ghibran hopes the entire album will be out by the first week of September.
Chennai 2 Singapore features new faces, and Ghibran hopes this experiment will help it reach a newer set of filmgoers. “It is a small film, cast-wise, but a big project, content-wise. When you do a project with big names {such as Kamal Haasan sir}, just matching their vision is a big task. When I take up a small film, I become one of its pillars — that gives me scope to experiment.”
That’s why Ghibran feels this album will reveal a side of him fans of Uttama Villain and Vaagai Sooda Vaa’ s music will least expect. “While there are three romantic numbers, the other three will be experimental. I feel they will appeal to the youth. Everyone has a crazy, whacky side that they don’t reveal — this film gave me a chance to express that side of me, musically.”
Singapore is familiar to Ghibran — he studied there and also met his wife, a scientist, in the city-state — but that’s not the only reason he’s looking forward to the trip. He’s excited about discovering new places on the way. But, music will always be a part of the journey — the rear portion of the car (a Ford Endeavour) will contain a portable music recording studio. “We’ll be on the road for about 20 days. Won’t it be cool to record something on the drive?”
