From humble beginnings in Vedurupaka, Andhra Pradesh to a rising career as a music composer — Vijai Bulganin has come a long way. His career straddles the worlds of both cinema and independent music. His songs from Baby, an upcoming romantic feature, have turned out to be likeable and laudable in equal measure. In fact, Sai Rajesh, the film’s director, went on to declare Vijai as the film’s first hero. In a conversation with CE, the music director talks about his journey with the film, his creative process and much more.
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You were named by your grandfather after the Soviet-era leader Nikolai Bulganin. I am curious, do you identify yourself as a communist?
No, not really. I don’t know much about that ideology, to be honest. But people always say I have these traits and values most communists do. I am an atheist and a believer of equality. Again, this is not something I have consciously adopted. It is just a part of who I am.
Interesting. You have mentioned that you dropped out of engineering college to pursue a career in music. That must have been a very hard decision for your family to come to terms with.
Oh yes. I actually come from a lower-middle-class family. It took a lot of work and sacrifice for my father to put me through school and college. But once I began to see that I was an average student, and a career in music is what I really wanted in the first place, I dropped out of college. My father was not happy at first, but they eventually came around. I would like to believe my family’s communist leanings played a role in that as well.
What was your journey with music like, when you were growing up?
I have always loved music, despite not being formally trained. I was always one to entertain friends in school with my singing skills. During my inter, I did take some classes in both Indian classical and Western classical music. Like most folks growing up in the 90s, I listened to a lot of Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman and MM Keeravani. I did not really know their names then, but when I look back — it was their songs I was listening to the most.
Coming to Baby, how did your collaboration with the film’s writer-director Sai Rajesh materialise?
Usually, directors ask us to submit a sample or two before finalising us for the project. But Rajesh was determined to have me on board from day one. After narrating the story and the song situations, he asked me to compose a single based on the easiest situation, for the perusal of the producer. But I went ahead and composed a song based on the toughest situation. That song turned out to be Premisthunna.
But why did you go for the toughest song first?
Though the director really wanted to impress the producers, I felt the need to impress my director first. I really wanted to reaffirm his faith in me. Plus, I figured out that if I compose the toughest song first, everything else will get easier.
Did it get easier?
(laughs) No, not at all. The thing with Sai Rajesh is, he will say the song we are set to compose is the most important one. He'd say the same for the next song, and this just went on and on. It is like how we tell kids, “finish your 10th, finish your degree, everything will be easier.” except nothing ever gets easier.
What exactly is an easy song and a tough song?
There is no such thing as easy or tough, atleast from the composer’s perspective. I think when the gap between the composer’s vision and the director’s/audience’s expectations is wide, the song is classified as tough.
How would you bridge the gap between your vision and the director's?
It was not hard at all. Rajesh provided some great inputs and I was always receptive towards them. Making kids sing the chorus of O Rendu Prema Meghalila was his idea and I was very happy to incorporate it.
Devaraaja is a rather interesting composition, fusing Carnatic music with EDM beats. How did that happen?
I am game for any kind of genre, but it is so much more challenging and exciting, when you get to experiment. The pallavi set the course for the rest of the song. I do not have a deep background in Carnatic music, but Arya Dhayal and Kalyan Chakravarthi, the singer and lyricist of DevaRaaja did and we were good to go.
Ribapappa, the film’s fourth single, has vocals that are heavily reminiscent of the late SP Balasubrahmanyam’s voice. Was that a conscious choice?
Yes. Our album is a homage to the Ilaiyaraaja genre of music, and we were aiming to recreate what the maestro did back then, in terms of progressions and string section arrangements. The SPB connect was another step in the direction of our tribute. We actually wanted to get SPB sir himself to sing the song, since we composed it when he was alive but fate, unfortunately, had other plans. Sri Krishna later went to sing that song.
What can the audience expect from Baby, as a film and as an album?
So many people have been saying that the music is a big plus for the film, but once you watch Baby, you will realise the other way round. The film helped its music a great deal. Baby is so much bigger than what you have seen of it so far. I am very proud and confident about this film.
