Pranaay started his journey as a music composer with the song ‘Kaisa Yeh Raaz Hai’ from the Emraan Hashmi –Kangana Ranaut – Adhyayan Suman starrer ‘Raaz: The Mystery Continues’ (2008). In these 17 years, Pranaay has composed for films like ‘Blood Money’ (2012), 3 A.M. (2014), ‘Ragini MMS 2’ (2014), ‘Baaghi’ (2016) and ‘OMG 2’ (2023). He has scored for shows like ‘Broken But Beautiful’ (2019-21), ‘Call My Agent Bollywood’ (2021), ‘Never Kiss Your Best Friend’ (2020-22), and ‘Yeh Meri Family’ (2023-24). His music has also contributed greatly towards making several advertising commercials, including the Nissan Micra commercial featuring Ranbir Kapoor, memorable.
Though Pranaay’s work as a composer for films, shows and advertisements keeps him extremely busy, he now makes it a point to keep some time aside to create the kind of music that comes straight from his heart, is not driven by any brief and is not restricted by any narrative-based limitations.
In the year 2021, Pranaay launched Thriver Entertainment, a label through which he releases music independently. In the last few years, one has seen him collaborate with several artists and come up with songs of different genres. One of the latest songs to have been released under this label is ‘O Saaware’. The song, written and composed by Pranaay, has been sung by Kapil Kapilan.
In this interview, Pranaay talks about Thriver Entertainment, the importance of creating music independently, the joy of collaborating with artists from different industries and regions, upcoming projects and more.
Apart from composing ‘O Saaware’, you have been credited as a lyricist on the song. Wasn’t ‘Teri Adaaon Mein’ from ‘3 A.M.’ the first song you wrote as a lyricist?
Yes! It was my first credit as a lyricist. Most composers come up with hook lines for the songs and the lyricist writes a song around it. I have contributed to many of my songs in that capacity. However, after a long time, I have written a full song myself.
Thriver Entertainment was launched in the year 2021. The first track to be released by the label was ‘Ganesh Aarti’. It was sung by Shashaa Tirupathi. What made you decide to have a label of your own?
I have been in this industry for more than 15 years now. I have been working on briefs given by directors, producers and music companies. You would make a song based on the brief given by them and it would go through several alterations before being approved. We had to cater to the requirement of the project. For the longest time, I had this urge to speak directly to the audience. I wanted to have this pure, unfiltered form of conversation with them. That led me towards launching Thriver Entertainment. Through this platform, I can create the kind of music I want to without any brief or restriction. Creating and releasing music independently is a liberating experience.
Kapil Kapilan has sung ‘O Saaware’. He is one of the leading voices in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. He has sung Hindi songs for films that were dubbed in the language. This, however, seems to be the first original Hindi non-film song sung by him.
Yes, that’s right! Kapil and I had earlier collaborated on a Tamil song called ‘Eva’. It was also released by Thriver Entertainment. He is a brilliant singer. I like to throw challenges at singers and see what they do with it. One day, I told him about this Hindi song I had made and if he would like to try it out. He immediately said he had been wanting do a Hindi song for a while and he would love to sing it. While I was quite excited at the prospect of Kapil singing it, I was a little concerned as well. Non-native Hindi speakers tend to have pronunciation issues while singing a song in the language. Kapil asked me to send him the song and assured me that he will do full justice to it. His first draft itself was brilliant! He surprised me tremendously with the ease with which he sang it. We have collaborated on another Hindi song which will come out a little later.
The song has some good guitar pieces.
Veljon Noronha is the guitarist. He does a lot of ads. We had worked on a few projects in the past. It was wonderful collaborating with him on this song. What I like the most about Veljon is that he plays clean. I have always admired such players. Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits has been one of my favourite guitarists. When you listen to him, you feel as if the guitar is singing. The guitar solos by Slash, the lead guitarist of Guns N’ Roses, would have strong melodies. These are players who don’t just riff through scales. Their pieces would have a strong melodic foundation. I would put Veljon in that bracket. He is extremely talented and one of the best guitarists we have today. Working with him is always a pleasure.
You are making songs in different languages.
Language should never be a barrier for an artist. It is a medium to share the music. When I composed a tune and realized the sound of a South Indian language would complement it well, I thought of having Tamil lyrics in it. Shashaa connected me to Madhan Karky. We ended up making ‘Eva’. We have worked on a few more songs together. A lot of people from the Tamil film and music industry called me up and said how much they loved it. I hope to collaborate with many more artists in the near future.
Artificial Intelligence has brought in a kind of revolution in the content industry in the last few years. Among other things, it has made it possible for independent musicians to create music videos with a lot of ease. The music video of ‘Eva’, was created using AI. What are your thoughts on this technology?
Eva’s music video was done by Madhan Karky’s team. As you rightly pointed out, it was done with the help of AI and they did a fabulous job with it. We are planning to do an AI and live video for ‘O Saaware’. There has been a lot of chatter around AI lately. Technology is going to move forward. Whether we want to move ahead with the times or not is something we have to decide. If we resist the change, we are going to be left behind. Whether we like it or not, it is going to be a big part of our future. Personally, I think we should embrace AI. Technology does not stop evolving. So, why should we?
What kind of plans do you have for Thriver Entertainment?
Last year, we launched a devotional channel called Ekant Collective. We have released around twenty-five songs under the label so far. We have done both original songs and existing bhajans. Two Tamil songs are in the pipeline. I plan to do twelve songs this year. Most of these songs will revolve around love and heartbreak. As an independent artist, I want to work around certain genres that resonate very deeply with me.