Brindha Sivakumar: A dream realised 

Given the general interest surrounding the families of celebrities, it's quite something that Suriya’s sister Brindha Sivakumar has managed to stay away from the limelight. All that, of course, has now changed, given she's made her debut as a singer in producer G Dhanajayan's upcoming film, Mr Chandramouli. He apparently heard her sing in a video of an Agaram Foundation event actor Sivakumar shared with him. “I was struck by her mellifluous voice and wondered why she hadn’t sung in films. Sivakumar sir told me that singing was her passion since childhood, and so, I decided to approach her for my home production,” he says.

Brindha has sung the theme song composed by Sam CS for Mr Chandramouli that stars Gautham Karthik and dad, Karthik Muthuraman. She says she has been learning Carnatic music from age 14, and has had Hindustani vocal training from 20. “Dhananjayan sir’s offer came as a complete surprise. It is a dream come true for me. I wanted to sing on the merit of my voice and not because of any influence. So I didn’t mind waiting for the right opportunity.”

On the recording process, she says, “Sam CS first asked me to send him my voice sample. Once he said okay, I requested him to compose something simple for me since it's my first attempt. I’m really grateful he did that. I’ve sung in temples and meditation camps, but there, I could lose myself in the music without the stress of fulfilling expectations. For playback singing, I had to multitask and focus on the lyrics, pronunciation, the feel of the song, conveying the right emotions...  I had to sing in a low bass voice with a different pitch to what I am used to."

She shares that Sivakumar is quite thrilled about this opportunity for her. “Appa has always encouraged me to sing since childhood. Every evening after school,  he would listen to me sing. Suriya anna was quite surprised to hear how different it sounded from my actual voice. Karthi is my biggest critic and has always teased me, but he was a lot more encouraging this time round,” she says, with a laugh.