Your present day musicians are no wandering mystics; they do not shy away from a crowd. In fact, the 21st-century musicians are master tacticians who know the pulse of the listener; they know what sells and what doesn’t and are deft with their social skills. A perfect case in point would be the man that we are featuring here; a master hit-maker and a musical genius in his right, Gopi Sundar. As Gopi himself says,” I know what the audience wants, and I give them exactly that.” Having composed music for over a hundred movies and over 5000 jingles, Gopi Sundar is currently among the most sought after musicians in South India today.

Music Milestones

At an event held not long ago at Vigyaan Bhavan in Delhi, Gopi was awarded the National award for best original background score for the movie 1983. A flood of reactions followed, both positive and negative. Nonetheless, the award was seen by many as a fitting tribute to the man who has enthralled the South Indian audience with some ground breaking musical scores in the past few years, be it Ustaad Hotel, Bangalore days or Left Right Left.So what did the man himself have to say when asked about winning the award?

“I don’t make music for the awards. I make music because I want to make music. I am not saying that the award does not make me happy. All I am saying was I was no less happy before the award. For me, someone humming my song is as good as any award.”

There is something in Gopi, probably in his boyish smile or in the unassuming look of his eyes. You can’t say which, that makes you feel that this is not one of those regular “I don’t care about awards” statement, and you somehow end up believing what the guy says.We know Gopi as somebody who has, in some ways, revolutionized the film music scene in Malayalam. Be it the fiery background score of Big-B, which set a new trend in Malayalam cinema or the idea of getting actors to sing playback for him.But you see none of that revolution in person. Gopi comes across as gentle and unassuming. What it would take it wipe the smile on his face, we wondered? Luckily for us, we never found out.

The shoot happened right after Gopi had completed composing music for Shyamaprasad’s latest directorial venture, Ivide. He was taking time off from his hectic schedule, for a trip to an exotic location, and we caught him just before he left. Working for Ivide was a challenge in some ways, he says. “Ivide is very unlike a regular Malayalam movie and had to be treated differently. The background score had to be detailed intricately with silence and sound in the right places. I enjoyed working on it,” he says.Gopi has a knack of explaining things with analogies- he says “ just like a cameraman should know how to use both light and darkness to his advantage, a musician has also should learn how to use silence in his music that he creates.”

Getting them Sing

So this movie again has actor Prithviraj singing out to us. Now, what is with actors singing playback, I wonder? Is it just a marketing gimmick like what he has always admitted it to be?“Yes,” he says, “It started off as a marketing idea because I thought that an actor’s voice could sell. But I soon found out that actors have an uncanny ability to impart the feel that a song demands. In some cases, they manage to do better than singers. Mainly because an actor is able to associate with what the character is supposed to feel in that instance”. He also says, “You have one voice speaking in the entire movie and then when it comes to songs, you have a different voice. Isn’t that a little odd?”Thinking of it, isn’t that true? Getting tuned to his analogies, I had a laugh when he joked about actors singing are like fit actors who do not depend on their stuntmen.

Work and Play

Apparently, Ivide was just one of the fourteen movies that Gopi was working on in the past few months. To top it off, he casually mentioned that there are twelve more projects that he has to start working on, once he returns from his trip. Ouch, that’s a lot of work he’s doing. Is he a workaholic? He casually replies, “No, I always work on my terms. I prefer not working late nights. I never put myself under stress, because I know that could affect the quality of music that I produce.” Twenty original scores over a period of three months and he is still not stressed out? “Coming from the fast world of advertising has its perks,” he laughs. As we got ready for the shoot, I asked him if he has a done a shoot earlier. “Yes, but that was a long time ago,” he said. He was a little stiff to start off, understandably uncomfortable. We warmed up with a few decent shots and then Blessy, our stylist had this idea of playing some peppy music. And voila- didn’t that work? The music got Gopi in his groove and in seconds we saw him transforming into a blithe boy- strumming the invisible strings on an old stereo, brandishing the trumpet as if it were a machinegun and turning his rockstar mode on with the microphone. He just had fun and Jinson, our photographer, clicked away. We are waiting for the reactions for the shoot to pour in, but let me tell you something. One look at the photos and the ladies at our office went,”Oh my God, he is so cute!” Quite something for the man who started of feeling absolutely out-of-place when the shoot started off. The day ended with a surprise for us and more so, for Gopi. A few friends of Gopi invaded the studio, and one of them had a delicious looking chocolate cake in his hand, and it said Happy Birthday Gopi. A pleasant surprise indeed. Oh! It certainly was a very happy birthday as the birthday boy blew the candles out and smeared the cake on all his friends .So how old did Gopi just turn? He looks at me, smiles mischeveously and walks away!

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A Nee-na Bob Please

There’s been a bumbling conversation about the haircut. Tabloids, news, and every girl got the urge to cut their hair now. I remember meeting Deepti a year ago at a particular shoot. In a golden lehenga and soft, luscious hair cascading on her shoulder, she looked striking with a dash of red lipstick. But now she’s pulled off looks that are ‘split ends’. When I asked her about the haircut, she mentioned. “It was difficult to cut my hair, especially because I was in beauty pageant and hair was an important aspect. But when I read the script, I knew I had to cut my hair. I had to shed my inhibitions.” That included facing a pair of scissors. Just like in Roman Holiday – the Oscar winning movie- Deepthi went to a styling parlor in Moscow. Similarly the way the barber reacted to cutting Princess Ann’s hair in the movie, so did Deepti’s hairstylist. By that time Deepthi had already snipped it to her shoulder level, the hairstylist was surprised when she saw her older pictures. Gently playing with the bounce of hair, the hairstylist marveled at the volume of her hair. She winced each time she had to get it shorter. But the most adventurous part really came when it came to describing the bob, both of them conversing in a lost language . Deepti mentioned, “ Getting my hair cut seemed impossible until I had to explain how I wanted it cut it. It was so hard to understand her broken English.” While it’s in his field of expertise to direct, Lal Jose also gave a shot at describing the haircut to the stylist. Jomon T. John had a laugh anticipating the outcome of the haircut. At one point, she said that it became comical because it was a language of gesticulating and hands flying in the air that lead to the swivel of scissors and finally the bob.”It’s funny,” Deepti exclaimed, “ I did not know what bob to call it.” Looking at Audrey Hepburn’s bob from Roman Holiday to the famous Rachel Green’s haircut from F.R.I.E.N.D.S, we’re sure the parlors are going to hear this now, “We would like a Nee-na bob please.”

The Vodka part

With her jetting off on bikes and wearing loose shirts that cloaked her poise, her role came to life in Mumbai as someone who works in the creative team of an ad agency. The role opened her to discover inhibitions and taught her to become more articulate. Commenting on her nonchalant vodka intakes, Deepti chipped in with her cute accent, “ The vodka was ‘pachavellom’. In fact, my first scene was my most memorable one, the opening shot with me drinking out of shot glasses. You would not believe it, my lucky first shot turned out being the opening shot itself!” But getting into the role, I asked, “How did you interpret conventionality?” She laughed by saying,“ I think I am pretty conventional. When you watch the movie, you see that Nee-na finally embraces conventionality.” Like her character adapted to some monotonous aspects of life, I asked if there were any plans in a wardrobe transformation from the reel life to real life. For a while, she thought and then said,“ My keepers from Nee-na’s wardrobe? Well, her jeans were very comfortable, and I wouldn’t mind having a few of her shirts.” But going out of the comfort zone was when she had to gain weight for the role. “Gaining weight was a challenge; I had to regularly drink yogurt smoothies and eat frequently to gain six kgs for the role.” The role was certainly worth the ‘weight’, pun intended.

On and Off Screen in Kochi

Off screen, she’s quite a daredevil. While sharing some of her most funny experiences especially being a novice rider. She had some time to practice on a bike, and yes the experimentation was on the highway where she had to take a turn to Panampilly Nagar. With the endless honking and the stirring Kochi traffic, she had her qualms about shifting gears. She added. “ Vijay Babu’s reaction was priceless! He kept on saying; Deepti slow down, you know I have a wife and a kid right?”

But more than her experiences here in Kochi, we got to know her more during our cover shoot. At six-thirty in the morning, she was charged! She boldly strutted in well-fitted jeans, and the cat eye rimmed sunglasses. Her confidence unstirred a she got into her poses with the horse. The horse was hesitant at first, but as she gently petted him, the photo was captured. During the shoot, she was in deep conversations among her the stylist and the make-up artist. At one point, I had to keep up with their fashion terminologies. Dialogues were flying in the air, “How about a Claudia Schiffer tousle and some burgundy lipstick?” Going versatile with her sweaters to her statement striped jacket, Depthi posed for the camera with her sharp silver eye makeup and audacious lipstick shades. In between the best of both worlds of modeling and filmdom, she totally reinvented Nee-na.

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