MUMBAI: One who has created soulful music, in spite of not being into the mainstream Bollywood music scenario but has gone out there to compose music for ads and started his journey through composing music for short films is Karan Kulkarni. He has given background score for Vidya Balan starrer Tumhari Sulu and Manoj Bajpai starrer Aligarh. He has also worked on Sacred Games. Karan's upcoming project is Radhika Madan and Abhimanyu Dassani Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota where he has composed music for all the songs.

Well in an exclusive interview with Radioandmusic, Karan Kulkarni shares his beautiful journey on what led him to choose music as his career path, his learnings and more.

He said, “There was always music around me when I was a child. I started playing guitar when I was fifteen and I got really into it. I did form a band with some college friends and one thing just led to another, and eventually, I decided to get even more serious about my music career.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Music Production/Sound Design from the Queensland University of Technology [QUT] Brisbane, Australia.  “I realized sound engineering is not enough and travelled to Australia to study music production. I was fortunate enough that my parents helped me out. I am into experimental music and not hardcore mainstream Bollywood music. I came back and started figuring out what to do. I started doing a few short films and all,” he added.

Kulkarni has been into the music scene for eight years. On being asked about the life lesson, he has learned, Kulkarni mentioned, “Not many people are quite supportive of having music as a career, as in learning it professionally. My parents have been very supportive, in their heart, but they were quite skeptical of choosing music as a career, you could have chosen anything else. But later they were fine with it.”

“I would say that things are always going to change and not going to be constant. If you are in a bad place today then don’t worry you might be in a better place tomorrow. The main thing you need to do is be consistent when you are learning music. A lot of people overdo it and kind of sound the same as everyone else. They are doing it constantly without any meaning and soul into it. Keep learning and practicing music every day, everything will fall in place.”

Kulkarni is an Indian film and advertisement music director, composer and producer based in Mumbai. His work has been featured in three Indian entries at various international film festivals including Cannes and Toronto (TIFF) and includes four theatrical releases in India: from the Directors. He further elaborated on how he embarked on his musical career, “People started hearing my music, a few Directors contacted me and one thing led to another and that’s how my first film came to me. But before I got my first film, I assisted Amit Trivedi for a year on some of his films. A few heard my music and I started getting advertising work. That was five and six years ago. I kept on doing ads.”

We see a lot of singers usually hogging all the limelight for any song that releases or becomes a hit. On this, the singer added, “A lot of people have that problem about singers being the centre of attraction and not lyricists or composers for that matter, but I don’t see it as a problem. It’s bound to happen, because it’s a human element in the song, people are going to wonder what that is, it’s a visual element in a film.”

Karan was awarded the Mirchi Music Award, as the best upcoming composer of the year, for his work on Sachin Kundalkar's Happy Journey. His work on the national award winning Shahid was nominated for the same award. A number of TV commercials, he has worked on, have been awarded by various advertising organizations. Karan's musical work spans across a variety of genres, with a focus on experimentation, innovation, and re-contextualizing based on the demands of modern trends and audiences.