Khushboo Tanna
Who's that

Who's That – R Anandh: Heard, Unseen

A true blue Chennai boy, R Anandh has composed music for more than 5,000 ad films

R Anandh picked up the veena when he was all of seven years old. Later, when studying to be a mechanical engineer in Roorkee, Anandh learnt to play the guitar and got into the college band. "I wanted to do something in music, more than being an engineer," he recalls.

And for the last 20 years, he has been composing music for ads.

After his graduation in 1989, Anandh joined Prasad Media as a composer and stayed there for three years, until the studio caught fire and had to be shut down. He then started his own home studio called Aqua Regia -- which is three parts hydrochloric acid and one part nitric acid that dissolves gold -- with Gopal Rao, whom he met at Prasad Media.

Who's That – R Anandh: Heard, Unseen
Starting with music for ad films, the duo soon started getting offers for doing Tamil and Malayalam feature films as well. That's when Shaleen Sharma, who was Anandh's band member in college, was asked to join the team.

The trio formed a band called Agosh, with Anandh playing the guitar, Rao as the lead singer and Sharma at the drums. Agosh released one album, Paisa, in the early 1990s.

The trio also composed music for the Hindi film, Zor, starring Sushmita Sen and Sunny Deol. However, they were disappointed by the experience and decided not to do Hindi feature films again.

The band disintegrated subsequently, but the three members have stayed in touch. Anandh continued to compose music for ads.

He says that over the years, he has done ads down South and in Mumbai. He has worked for major brands, such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Fanta, Sprite and Limca.

Anandh says the initial days were difficult, but once the work started being appreciated, offers started pouring in.

Another development that facilitated the entry of new talent in the music industry was A R Rahman -- who, incidentally, was Anandh's classmate in school -- moving into feature films. "Rahman used to dominate the ad music business, and it was difficult for youngsters to showcase their work in the industry."

Anandh, a true-blue Chennai boy, would have remained so, had it not been for the opportunity of doing a project in Mumbai towards the end of 2005. He had come to Mumbai for a day, and the same day, he got a call from another client who wanted Anandh to stay back for a couple of days and compose the music for an ad.

Soon, another call followed and he had to extend his stay for a week. Bored of staying in the hotel, Anandh moved into the fully-furnished house of one of his relatives. Within two weeks, he brought his wife and car to Mumbai. And stayed on.

(Who's that? is an effort to highlight the lesser known talents from the advertising, media and marketing industry.)

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