‘AR Rahman is my biggest inspiration’ Uma Kannan <http://expressbuzz.com/searchresult/uma-kannan> First Published : 12 Jun 2010 02:43:45 AM IST Last Updated : 12 Jun 2010 09:30:36 AM IST
CHENNAI: Twenty five-year-old Kunal Rajan is already making waves in Hollywood and in Indian cinema. The sound designer, based in Los Angeles, shares his experiences. “Web series Fear Clinic has Robert Englund, Kane Hodder and Danielle Harris in the lead. I feel extremely honoured to have won the Best Sound Design award for Fear Clinic as I was nominated against some of the top sound designers. It was an unforgettable experience,” says Kunal, who has worked in 30 American films and in a few Indian films. “Only very few people were aware of the fact that there was someone called a sound designer/sound mixer in cinema. A common misconception people had was that all the sound and music was handled by the music director. But after Resul Pookutty’s Oscar win, many people in India got to know about sound design and started taking notice. I am glad that the audiences are starting to notice technical aspects like this,” opines Kunal and adds that his association with Resul began when he came to Los Angeles for the sound effects work of Ghajini (Hindi). “Resul and I worked in the film Blue and now in Endhiran. It has been a great experience to work with Resul. He knows how the audiences would react to a certain scene and mixes his films accordingly. We had a lot of pressure while working in Blue as it was the first release for both AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty after their Oscar win. AR Rahman has been one of my biggest inspirations to become a sound designer. He brought new sounds to India and it is an honour to work in his films,” says the sound designer, who feels Hollywood films are way ahead of Tamil cinema. “It takes a crew of 10 to 12 sound editors and mixers and around three to four months to finish a sound design for a film in Los Angeles, when compared to four to five sound editors and mixers working in a Tamil film for less than a month. Tamil directors have started to realise the importance of sound and are trying new things,” adds Kunal, whose favourite projects are Achchamundu Achchamundu and Fear Clinic. “Achchamundu Achchamundu is close to my heart since it was my first Tamil film as a sound designer. Fear Clinic won me a Streamy Award for Best Sound Design. This is my first major award,” adds Kunal with a smile. At school, Kunal was fascinated with the sound in films that made him do a lot of research on all that went behind them. “That is when I realised that there are things like sound effects, sound design and sound mixing in films. Then I studied sound design in Chennai and Singapore, after which I came to the US to do an advanced course in Sound Design. On Endhiran, he says, “It is a great project to work on as it has a very good scope for sound design. We are trying many new recording techniques to give Endhiran a new sound. We are using very little library sounds and recording a lot of fresh sounds for the film. The audience will be able to notice the difference in sound design from other films, if watched at a theatre. Everything about Endhiran is grand and the sound will be too.” Even though Kunal works on Hollywood films, he loves to work on a few films from India whenever possible. “I want to take sound design in Tamil films to a whole new level. I have been talking to a few directors in Chennai about sound and they are all excited to try something new. I am very open to new and upcoming Indian filmmakers even with smaller budgets who want to try something new and innovative,” says the sound designer. http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/‘ar-rahman-is-my-biggest-inspiration’/180903.html -- - Regards ~ ~ A.R.Rajib ~ ~
