MUMBAI: Sarang Kulkarni, a young sarod player who is a familiar name in the Marathi music industry, took his sarod lessons from his father Pandit Rajan Kulkarni from an early age.  Along with going through a journey of being an accomplished sarod player, Sarang is also en route being a music composer.

“I started playing for movies sometime in 2012 and one of my first projects was with Nitin Desai production Ajintha. Then, however, I was playing my instrument in the background. Now I have graduated to being a music composer and background score composer too.” He composed the entire score for the first time for Marathi movie Lathe Joshi, which got critical acclaim in many international award circuits. It also tuned out to be a first prize winner in Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) but is still awaiting a commercial release.

He has sparingly played in Hindi films too and has vivid views on the difference in the setup. “The scale is totally different. For both the industries, most recordings are done in Mumbai, sometimes the artistes are same too, but the differences are visible in basic things like studios the music is recorded in. Even the South music industry is upgraded. Marathi music industry is still evolving phase, but is going in the right direction.”

Sarang is one of the sought-after names among the Sarod players in Marathi industry, he, however, expresses his views on the perception, “Somehow an instrument and the sound produced by it is stereotyped. Like sarod or shehnai is connected with melancholy and used in such situations. But, it is also dependent on the player. We need to change this perception.”

When asked why he wants to compose music, despite having a bright future as a sarod player. He says, “I was very young when the film Roja had released and I would keep listening to the cassette again and again. Back then I nurtured a desire to be someone like Rahman Sir. He is someone I idolise among Indian composers and in International circuit, Hans Zimmer and Yanni are the composers I look upto.” Besides, he has been a part of regional reality shows and has formed a band called Aagadh with his fellow musician friends.

Currently, he is working on composing background music for a Marathi movie called Baban which is scheduled to release in March 2018 and composing music score for a yet untitled Marathi movie scheduled to release during the most awaited festival in Maharashtra Ganesh Chaturthi.

“I usually try and understand the director’s taste in music, during our primary discussion and try to compose accordingly. Not every director wants grand, some like it subtle and as a music composer, I have to understand that,” shares the young maestro.

Along with classical music concerts and music composing, Sarang and his wife Priyanka Barve, young singer/actress, have also entered into independent music space with their venture Priyarang. They collaborated with other musician friends on a track called Mahaganpathim during last Ganesh festival, which went viral. Sarang adds, “Since January 2018, we have an added viewer base of four lakhs of total five and a half lakh views, which is without any paid promotions.”

They plan to collaborate with many more artistes to create music that they want to project. Elaborating on the same Sarang says, “When you are working for someone, you have to cater to their needs and wishes, so we started this venture, where we can present the music we believe in. We are currently in process of collaboration with the percussion master Ustad Taufiq Qureshi.”

Signing off, he expresses his views on regional cinema, “I personally think regional cinema is the future, as the audiences are opening up and horizons are getting wider.” We can’t agree more.