A very few people get to live their life resonating with the platitude ‘choose a job you love’. And India-born Los Angeles-resident sound designer Kunal Rajan is one of those lucky few. The 37-year sound designer is earning accolades for his recent work with Karthik Subbaraj’s Mahaan starring Vikram and Dhruv Vikram as protagonists. Kunal tells us that Mahaan is his sixth film with the director. “Working with Karthik has always been so much fun. He has a way of bringing out the best in everyone. Mahaan is my most subtle and grounded work,” begins the musician.
Being a sound designer for more than 150 films including 50 horror movies across India and Hollywood, Kunal is also a regular with Kamal Haasan’s films like Vishwaroopam, Uttama Villain and Thoongavanam among many others. Brought-up in Puducherry, Kunal developed his love for sound mixing at a very early age when he would watch movies in the theatre and discuss music with his friends. “I studied sound after my school and then moved to the US. It’s a dream to be doing what I enjoy daily,” enthuses the musician, who has also worked with music legends like AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty to name a few.
Kunal equates sound design with storytelling. He unapologetically says that his work is an art of manipulating the audiences’ emotions. “I can mix sounds to make the setting of a scene happy or sad and that’s what I feel makes my job more interesting,” he explains and adds that aesthetics of work are different in India and abroad. “Sound in Indian films generally tends to be a little over the top compared to American films,” he observes.
Kunal is a fan of Indian music and wishes to bring in certain aspects of Indian sensibilities in some of his American works and vice versa. “When I was starting a few years ago, I was lucky to get opportunities to assist and shadow some very experienced sound designers in Hollywood. My team in the US isn’t familiar with Indian music so working with them always brings a new flavor to the Indian films I work on,” he elucidates.
Next up is an exciting project with director Atlee under Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. This will be Kunal’s first feature film in Hindi as a sound designer.
priyanka.chandani@newindianexpress.com