Harikrishna readying music for Kurukshetra

V Harikrishna, who has always created magic with his music, has a new challenge ahead of him. He has been roped in as music director for the period drama Kurukshetra. The movie, based on the epic Mahabharata, is also Darshan’s 50th movie. 

Harikrishna is already on the job. Though he has already worked on a period film, in Kranti Veera Sangolli Rayanna, setting its background score, this will be the first time he will be creating the entire musical score for a historical drama. The music director says it is exciting to have such a big responsibility trusted with him.

He says, “This is a story and these are characters we have grown up with. We have been told about them and watched them on TV. These are legends...Krishna, Duryodhana, Arjuna, Karna Bheema, so I am extremely happy to be creating music for such a film. This is also a milestone film for Darshan, and this adds to my excitement... this is, in all, a landmark film.”

The music director has already started with the recording and says that there will be eight songs in Kurukshetra. “I am done with two songs,” he says, adding that he has already formed a team to help create music fit for this historical drama. “I have lyricist Nagendra Prasad, writer JK Bharavi and director Naganna. They are helping me with their ideas because everyone is drawn to this epic.”

Harikrishna explains that in Kurukshetra, the music will be set to suit each character. “Everything has to fit together,” he says. “Moreover, you don’t have examples to refer to for these songs, that’s why we need team work.”

The music director is focussing on bringing out the best using the calibre of local musicians. “When we have the best expertise in India, why should we look for somebody from outside,” he asks. To him, the best music done for period drama till date was for Rajkumar-starrer Mayura. He also counts mythological films such as Srinivasa Kalyana, Bhakta Prahalada, Immadi Pulikeshi and Kittur Rani Chenamma among his favourites.

Kurukshetra, produced by Munirathna, will have Darshan playing Duryodhana and Ravichandran as Krishna. The filmmakers are tightlipped about the rest of the cast, and we hear that a big launch has been planned for July 23, on the producer’s birthday.