Srinivas element was surpising. i din know that.

>
> On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Gopal Srinivasan <catchg...@yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> THE INSIDERS
>> Font Size
>> Dipti Nagpaul D’Souza
>> Posted: Mar 15, 2009 at 1113 hrs IST
>>
>> http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-insiders/434152/0
>>
>> Meet the reclusive managers, technicians and singers who make up Team
>> Rahman
>> T. SELVAKUMAR, 45,
>> MANAGING DIRECTOR OF
>> RAHMAN’S MUSIC SCHOOL
>> In the early 1990s, when Bollywood was just beginning to rave about a
>> phenomenon, A.R. Rahman
>> met music programmer T. Selvakumar in Chennai. Both were musicians trained
>> in the alchemy of
>> sound, both shared their hopes of setting up their own studios one day. As
>> Rahman’s stock rose
>> in filmdom, Selvakumar notched up a reputation in the Indian music
>> industry as a master
>> technician. Soon, he got into the business of supplying high-end music
>> technology equipment.
>> “That’s when our acquaintance changed to friendship,” says the man who has
>> helped Rahman set up
>> his many state-of-the-art studios. To him also goes the credit of setting
>> up the first and only
>> Apple-certified music, special effects and film editing technology
>> training institute in the
>> country.
>>
>> Selvakumar was one of the few people who knew about Rahman’s dream of
>> setting up a music
>> school. “He wanted to start a school of music technology but I insisted he
>> couple it with
>> teaching.” One day in 2007, Rahman decided that the time had come. “And
>> when AR wants
>> something, he wants it right away. He asked me if I would manage it for
>> him and I didn’t see
>> why I should refuse him,” he says.
>> A regular day at the school sees Selvakumar taking classes in audio and
>> video technology and
>> ironing out numerous administrative hassles. He also continues to deal in
>> Apple equipment.
>> Whenever the company launches something new, Rahman is his first client.
>> “AR’s one of the two
>> most tech-savvy musicians in India,” he states, proudly. Who’s the other?
>> “You wouldn’t expect
>> this: Ilaiyaraaja.”
>>
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>> Musicians Institute
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>> NOEL JAMES, 48, MANAGER
>> Over two decades ago, Noel James was playing the piano as a lounge
>> musician at a hotel in
>> Chennai when a certain jingles composer walked in. “Rahman heard me play
>> and asked if I was
>> interested in working with him.” James agreed. That was the beginning of a
>> partnership that has
>> lasted to this day. James has since grown to become Rahman’s manager and
>> chief public relations
>> officer. He occasionally assists the composer in stage shows and handles
>> much of his
>> coordination — with musicians, clients, talent and even the media. The
>> road to Rahman, it could
>> be said, goes through James.
>> Born and brought up in Mumbai, James got hooked to music at an early age.
>> After graduating from
>> Loyola College, Chennai, he got a degree in violin from the prestigious
>> Trinity College of
>> Music, London. “I played in a band called Jumping Jewels, handling the
>> vocals and guitar. That
>> was before I went solo,” he says. He worked part-time with Rahman
>> initially but became a
>> permanent member of the team, singing the jingles and helping him with
>> production.
>>
>> Being Rahman’s manager has meant that James does not get much time for his
>> own music—except
>> when he plays at church. He has no regrets though. “God sends messiahs to
>> earth, whether it is
>> Jesus Christ or Prophet Mohammed. It has been quite a while since He sent
>> someone. I believe
>> A.R. Rahman is such a messiah who works through his music,” says James,
>> for whom familiarity
>> has only brought more appreciation towards Rahman, the musician and the
>> man.
>>
>> DEEPAK GATTANIi, 46, CONCERT MANAGER
>> Behind every power-packed Rahman concert is Deepak Gattani and his team at
>> Rapport Global
>> Events. “We manage his live entertainment business but the relationship
>> isn’t a client-service
>> provider one,” he says. Gattani first met Rahman through singer Hariharan,
>> another client.
>> Since that meeting, he has handled all of Rahman’s tours and performances,
>> and more recently,
>> has been managing Rahman’s endorsement portfolio as well.
>> Whenever Rahman is in Mumbai, Gattani finds himself seated next to him.
>> “But being with him
>> doesn’t mean that he’ll talk anymore than he usually does,” he says with a
>> laugh. “His concerts
>> have to be technically high-end, with something different each time.
>> Working for him means
>> making no mistakes and planning in advance.” Gattani is dogged by
>> international clients’
>> proposals for Rahman concerts after his Oscar win. But, as of now, his
>> priorities lie with
>> organising Rahman’s first-ever live concert in Kerala, scheduled for May.
>>
>> S. SIVAKUMAR, 41, CHIEF SOUND ENGINEER
>> A novice who had just finished a diploma in sound engineering in 1992, S.
>> Sivakumar got his
>> first break when he was appointed assistant audio engineer at a reputed
>> studio in Chennai. The
>> designation was deceptive. The actual work assigned to the young man was
>> to stand and wait in
>> the machine room and change tapes once each roll was over. Then Rahman
>> happened. “I had been
>> working for about six months or so when A.R. Rahman came to the studio to
>> do the mixing for
>> Puthiya Mugam. He wanted an assistant and asked my seniors if I was
>> interested. That was 15
>> years ago and I have been with him since,” he says. A native of Thanjavur,
>> the rice bowl of
>> Tamil Nadu, Sivakumar is now one of the noted names in sound engineering
>> in India, the main man
>> behind Rahman’s AM Studio and his chief sound engineer. He has worked in
>> all Rahman films since
>> Gentleman in 1993 and was a part of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay
>> Dreams.
>> According to Sivakumar, Rahman’s contribution goes beyond just
>> transforming film music in
>> India. He was also the first composer to include the names of all those
>> who worked on the
>> project on the audiotape/CD jackets — an acknowledgement of many backroom
>> operators like
>> Sivakumar, who would otherwise be invisible to the world outside studio
>> walls.
>>
>> K.J. SINGH, 47, SOUND ENGINEER
>> He doesn’t sound his age and Rahman thinks the sound engineer’s voice
>> bears a hint of a
>> European accent. “He keeps teasing me that he’ll soon find me a voice-over
>> project overseas,”
>> says Singh with a laugh. But the camaraderie between the two took time to
>> develop. Singh says
>> when he first met Rahman five years ago during a concert, the composer
>> would just stand next to
>> him without saying a word. “He’s shy and doesn’t waste words. There have
>> been times when I
>> would turn to find him standing behind me for 10 minutes! It felt strange,
>> but later realised
>> that’s how he is,” says Singh. “But once he gets to know you better, there
>> are no reservations.
>> You’re family and he’s open to sharing all his knowledge.”
>>
>> The technician has done numerous Rahman concerts and films, starting with
>> Rang De Basanti and
>> recently Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na and Delhi-6. The two were first
>> introduced by the latter’s
>> chief sound engineer, the late H. Sridhar. Rahman noticed the two friends
>> shared a good
>> wavelength and often brought them together for his projects. “I think AR
>> noticed how seamlessly
>> we both worked. If both Sridhar and I had handled a project, one could not
>> make out whether a
>> track was managed by him or me. Rahman made good use of that.” Based in
>> Mumbai for a decade
>> now, the sound engineer likes to explore new talent and, at the same time,
>> work with the old.
>> His clientele boasts of names like Hariharan, Indian Ocean, Rabbi Shergill
>> and G.V. Prakash,
>> Rahman’s nephew. Singh is most looking forward to his trip to Chennai next
>> week. He is
>> determined to make the maestro throw a party for each award he has won for
>> Slumdog Millionaire.
>> “He can space out the parties but he can’t escape them,” he says with a
>> wink.
>>
>> SRINIVAS, 49, SINGER
>> In 1988, a chemical engineer travelled to Chennai from Coimbatore for a
>> day so that he could
>> sing for Ilaiyaraaja. It broke Srinivas’s heart that he had to lost the
>> opportunity to a throat
>> infection. But another southern genius’s success gave him hope and he
>> approached Rahman soon
>> after the success of Roja. Rahman took a liking to Srinivas and asked him
>> to move to Chennai.
>> In 1994, Srinivas shifted base and started lending his voice to
>> advertisement jingles and
>> devotional albums. It was only in 1996, that he gained recognition with
>> the song Manna Madurai
>> from Rahman’s Minsaara Kanavu. Then came En uyire in Mani Ratnam’s Uyire
>> (the Tamil version of
>> Dil Se), which was his first big hit.
>>
>> Now a big name down south, Srinivas has since worked closely with the
>> composer. “I never knew I
>> could compose, but watching A.R. inspired me. He’s in a different world
>> altogether when he
>> works. And to him, work on a song only begins once he’s composed it. From
>> there, it evolves
>> with his many editions and improvisations,” he says. Of late, due to his
>> busy schedules, Rahman
>> has entrusted Srinivas with the responsibility of supervising the vocals
>> during recordings.
>> “Many would find it strange and menial but it’s an honour to help him
>> out,” says the singer who
>> has to take out time from his packed schedule of recordings and reality
>> shows. “But AR is
>> always a priority over others.”
>>
>> RAQEEB ALAM, 38, SINGER AND LYRICIST
>> His story is straight out of a Bollywood flick: playback singer and
>> lyricist Raqeeb Alam was
>> born into a family of teachers in Bihar but books held no charm for him.
>> Instead, he spent all
>> his waking hours listening to music or singing. While in college in
>> Chennai, he became a
>> part-time singer. It was during a show that he met lyricist P K Mishra,
>> who liked him and
>> introduced him to AR in 2002. But when he met the musician, he got so
>> nervous, he “couldn’t
>> sing beyond a line.” The two, however, kept in touch.
>>
>> Once, Rahman was scheduled to meet Deepa Mehta for a session for Water.
>> Sukhwinder Singh, who
>> was supposed to write and sing a song for the film, had left for Varanasi
>> because of an
>> emergency. Desperate for a replacement, Rahman called Alam. “I wrote 10
>> mukhdas of which they
>> selected one and then I wrote the whole song,” he says. After its
>> recording, political
>> controversy delayed Water by four years. “But the patience paid off. The
>> song got good reviews
>> when the film released and was later nominated for an Oscar. I didn’t win
>> the award but had won
>> AR’s confidence.” Alam has since written and sung many songs for Rahman,
>> primarily the Hindi
>> translations of his Tamil albums. His most memorable is Ek mohabbat, which
>> Rahman sang for the
>> campaign to include Taj Mahal in the Seven Wonders Of The World project.
>> The latest feather in
>> his cap is Ringa Ringa, which he wrote for Slumdog Millionaire.
>>
>> VIJAY MOHAN IYER, 32, LABEL MANAGER
>> It requires some amount of prodding to get him talking. Vijay Mohan Iyer,
>> who manages Rahman’s
>> K M Musiq label, prefers to remain behind his idol’s shadow. “I’m sure you
>> can skip writing
>> about me. Why not write about AR?” he repeats after every question. But
>> here’s the story: The
>> Mumbai boy first met Rahman on his 18th birthday in Chennai. “But nothing
>> worked out in terms
>> of music. I returned, got back to studies and took up a job. One day,
>> eight years ago, I found
>> myself seated next to my idol on an eight-hour flight to London,” he says.
>> They got chatting
>> and struck up a friendship. “The desire, of course, was to work with him
>> in some way or the
>> other. I guess persistence pays. One day, he just asked me to meet up and
>> briefed me about a
>> project he had in mind; and that was the K M Musiq label.” Iyer has held
>> his dream job for
>> three years and he didn’t mind uprooting his life from Mumbai to a
>> laidback Chennai. “I missed
>> the city but AR’s is a different world.”
>>
>
>
>
> --
> regards,
> Vithur
>
>
>
>  
>

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