On his Instagram handle, actor Allu Arjun recently posted a video of singer Sid Sriram crooning Srivalli, from his multilingual movie Pushpa: The Rise, without any background music. The famed actor captioned it, “He [Sid Sriram] does not need music..he is music.” The singer’s fans will heartily agree with this statement. Currently riding high on the success of the song – which has been sung in the Kannada and Tamil versions of the movie as well – Sriram says, “I was not really thinking about how successful the song would be. I was immersed at the moment. But the response to the song has egged me on.”
One needn’t be Instagram-savvy to come across reels with Srivalli playing in the background. Despite staying away from social media, Sriram is often sent these memes which crack him up. “I remember the first time the lyrical video came out, I loved that little move that Allu Arjun garu does. I thought it was super swag. Now a bunch of cricketers have also jumped onto the trend...so it’s been cool,” says Sriram.
This is the second time the singer has lent his voice for Allu Arjun, the first being for Samajavaragamana in the movie Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, which was a massive hit too. “We have mutual respect for each other. Pushpa...has got a certain edge to it with a mass appeal,” says Sriram, who was discovered by AR Rahman and started his career in playback singing with the song Adiye in the Tamil movie, Kadal.
Sriram is ever grateful to Rahman, who was instrumental in shaping his career. “It all started with my sending an email to Rahman and he magically responded to it. He mentioned Adiye to me, and the way it was explained was like soul-blues meets Tamil fishermen folk music. It was a popular one for sure and a trailblazer of a song,” says Sriram.
Becoming an instant hit from the first song itself can be overwhelming, but Sriram does make a conscious effort to keep himself grounded. “Music is an infinite ocean and I will never be able to learn everything. Although I have been in the industry for a decade, I have only scratched its surface,” says Sriram, who learnt Carnatic music from his mother Latha Sriram.
Had there been no pandemic, Sriram, like many others, feels that he would have been far ahead. But then again, he’s the kind to focus on the present. “I have been recording more Kannada songs in the last month. I love the language and the industry has some incredible music directors,” he signs off.