Prashant Pillai

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Prashant Pillai
Born (1981-09-08) 8 September 1981 (age 43)
Origin Pune, Maharashtra, India
Genres Film music, film score, soundtrack, sonic branding, soul, new-age, electronic, world, soul, pop
Occupation(s) Music producer, music programmer, musician, bandleader, composer, arranger, film score writer
Instruments Percussions, piano
Years active 2000 – Present
Labels Madras Blues Records (present)
Website PrashantPillai.com

Prashant Pillai (born 8 September 1981) is a music producer and composer from India.

Early career

After completing his Sound engineering in Chennai, he went on to work with A.R.Rahman. After a short stint with him, he moved on and settled in Pune, where he started scoring for ad jingles, web sonics, and short films. Pillai considers A.R.Rahman to be his professional guide and mentor.

In early 2004, Pillai got his first break to compose a radio jingle and then went on to compose jingles, for both radio and television consumption.

In the year 2007, Prashant scored music for Bejoy Nambiar's, critically acclaimed short film Rahu where he teamed with singer K. S. Krishnan. Bejoy's uncanny knack of selecting unusual and experimental sounds, resulted in Prashant working on a soundtrack, which he still claims to be his best. Rahu soundtrack features Murtaza and Qadir Khan, sons of the Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan. They feature in the soundtrack for the Sufi song, "Betaabi". This song was later used in a Malayalam film City of God.

Film scoring and soundtracks

Prashant's first break in feature films came when debutant Lijo Jose Pellissery roped him for the Malayalam film Nayakan, in March 2010. The film featured actors like Indrajith, Thilakan, Siddique and Jagathy Sreekumar in pivotal roles. Academy Award winner A. R. Rahman released the music of the movie[1][2]

File:A.R.Rahman releasing Prashant Pillai's music - Nayakan.JPG
A.R.Rahman releasing Prashant Pillai's music – Nayakan OST

Prashant's mentor A.R.Rahman released the soundtrack of Nayakan on 16 March 2010, at Rahman's Panchathan Studios in Chennai.[3][4][5] The Nayakan soundtrack features, 6 songs, one of which is sung by Indrajith (the lead of the film) himself. Prashant worked on this project for over one and a half years, and has fused in elements that is new to the Malayali audience.

In 2011, Prashant collaborated with Lijo once again for City of God[6] which opened to mixed reviews.[7][8][9] The movie stars Prithviraj and Indrajith as pivotal characters, along with Parvathi, Rima Kallingal and Shwetha Menon.

In 2011, he made his debut into commercial cinema with the Bollywood film Shaitan,[10] directed by his now close friend, mentor and director Bejoy Nambiar, for which Pillai has scored majority of the songs. The film, produced by Anurag Kashyap has a unique soundscape to it; co-composed by eminent composers like Ranjit Barot, Amar Mohile and Anupam Roy.In the same year Prashant scored the original background music for the Malayalam film Bombay March 12 starring National Award winner Mammootty directed by awardwinning screenwriter Babu Janardhan.

2012 saw Prashant scoring the background music for Siddarth Bharathan's Nidra a remake of his father Bharathan's 1981 film also titled Nidra. The film wasn't a commercial hit, but the film and its score was appreciated for its definitive style.[11] Prashant also scored background music for MTV Rush, a series of 12 short stories on the leading music and entertainment television channel MTV, directed by Bejoy Nambiar of Shaitan fame.

Jan 2013 saw the release of Prashant's third soundtrack for Bejoy Nambiar, in his upcoming film, David. The soundtrack, which was supervised and co-produced by Prashant, is a compilation of various bands like Bram Fatura, Light Years Explode, MaatiBaani as also artists like Remo Fernandes, Anirudh Ravichander and Mikey McCleary. Apart from sound design, Prashant's tracks in the film feature eminent singers like Lucky Ali, Karthik, Shweta Pandit and Naresh Iyer. The film stars Vikram, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jiiva, Isha Sharvani and Tabu among others, released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. He also composed the background score for the Hindi film Issaq directed by Manish Tiwary.

Post City of God[6] Prashant composed the music for Lijo Jose Pellissery's Malayalam musical film titled Amen. The music become very popular and the film subsequently became a major blockbuster. The album featured artists like Ramya Nambeesan, Alyssa Mendonsa and Lucky Ali This is a romantic comedy featuring actors Indrajith Sukumaran, Fahadh Faasil, Swati of Subramaniapuram fame and Kalabhavan Mani among others. Prashant was subsequently roped in by veteran filmmaker Lal Jose for Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal.

In 2014, composed flop songs for Ajith Pillai's Mosayile Kuthira Meenukal and debutant Santhosh Nair's Money Ratnam. His upcoming releases are Double Barrel, his fourth collaboration with filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery and the Tamil film Andhra Mess.

Awards

  • 2013 -16th Asianet Film Awards 2014 – Best Music Director – Amen[12]
  • 2013 – TTK Prestige-Vanitha Film Awards – Best Music Director – Amen[13]

Discography

A selected discography of Prashant's music albums

Year Title Genre Group Label
2003 Om Ganeshaya Namaha (as Prashant Pillai) Devotional Independent
2005 Amhi Puneri (as Prashant Pillai) Pop Independent
2011 debut (as Prashant Pillai) World/Fusion/Lounge Groove Loves Company Madras Blues Rechords

Filmography

A complete list of films done by Prashant Pillai

Short Film

No Year Title Language Notes
1 2007 Rahu Malayalam
Co-composed with Krishnan.
Credited as Prashant-Krishnan
Songs and Background Score

Feature Films

No Year Title Language Notes
1 2010 Nayakan Malayalam Songs and Background Score
2 2011 City of God Malayalam Songs and Background Score
3 2011 Shaitan Hindi 7 of 14 songs from the OST
4 2011 Bombay March 12 Malayalam Background Score
5 2012 Nidra Malayalam Background Score
6 2012 Nee Ko Njaa Cha Malayalam Songs
7 2013 David / David Hindi / Tamil 3 Songs
8 2013 Amen Malayalam Songs and Background Score
9 2013 5 Sundarikal Malayalam Song and Background Score for Esha
10 2013 Sixteen Hindi 3 Songs and Background Score
11 2013 Issaq Hindi Background Score
12 2013 Zachariayude Garbhinikal Malayalam Background Score
13 2013 Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal Malayalam Songs and Background Score
14 2014 Mosayile Kuthira Meenukal Malayalam Songs and Background Score
15 2014 Money Ratnam Malayalam Songs and Background Score
16 2014 Mamachya Gavala Jaaoo Yaa Marathi Songs and Background Score
17 2015 Chandrettan Evideya Malayalam Songs and Background Score
18 2015 Double Barrel Malayalam Songs and Background Score
19 2015 Andhra Mess Tamil Songs and Background Score
19 2015 Rockstar Malayalam Songs and Background Score
20 2016 Wazir Hindi 1 song only.
21 2016 Untitled Sidhartha Siva film Malayalam Songs and Background Score

References

External links