08 December 2015
Hyderabad

When it comes to composing music, Praveen Lakkaraju has his own style. With different genres, Praveen proved his versatility in Tollwyood. Idle Brain throws Focus Light on the composer who believes in creating a music nook in Tollwyood.

My childhood
I was born in PadmaRao nagar Hyderabad. I am a Total Hyderabadi. My father retired as an Executive Director from BHEL. He had many expectations from me academically. He made sure; I pursued my education and never had deviations from school and college. So, I used to tell everyone that I would become an engine driver when I grow up. Of course, what I meant was to be an Engineer.

At the age of ten, I watched Roja movie in Aradhana theater. I was  so mesmerized by the music and the score that, I kept thinking about it. After I came home, I composed couple of songs. That was the impact I had. I would say, a composer was born in the theater. Since then I wished to be a music director and inspire others the way I was inspired by Rahman. I was quite an introvert and didn’t have enough courage to ask my parents to pursue music as my career. During intermediate, I somehow gathered the nerve and asked if I can pursue music. But my parents asked me to get a job and then pursue my passion. Now, I am happy that they pushed me into education. If I look back, I have the education and now I have a job that pays my bills. I work during nights and then compose music during daytime.

I moved to the US to pursue MS and started working in IT. I bought music gear and watched youtube and learnt to compose tunes. I also underwent training in piano classes from Trinity music college. My friend Srijo, lyricist, was also my classmate in engineering. We both started working on music tunes. He would write lyrics and I would compose music. We submitted for competitions and received couple of awards too. We also uploaded our work on youtube and used to jam quite often.

My entry into tollywood
As destiny has it, I finally entered the dreamland for musicians, Tollywood. My friend Ajay was doing Chinna Cinema movie and asked me to compose music. Thus I entered tollywood through Chinna Cinema. It has 6-7 songs. My personal favorite is, Puttadi Bomma, which received many accolades. During this time, Kona Venkat visited USA and conducted a seminar on script writing, and story writing. He was looking for musicians for his short film and I chanced upon the opportunity. This was in August 2013.

In February 2014, he called me and said he was producing movie called Geetanjali and offered me to compose music for the movie. I couldn’t believe my fate. Kona Venkat believed in my abilities and gave me a big project. I am very thankful to him for that. Though, I was composing music, the logistics played a huge role. I would compose tunes and send him through whatsapp and emails. He would get back with suggestions. The final recording was done in India. We used Skype and other technology to the fullest. This was born of out of necessity. But for Background score, I went to Hyderabad and completed it. I came back to USA before the release. The movie was released and it was a huge hit. Uday, who was the co-director of Geetanjali, told me that the movie was a huge hit and asked me to come to India for the success meet. I took flight in 2 hours and flew down. That was the kick I had at that time. Kona Venkat informed me about Sankarabharanam during this time. I couldn’t believe my fate again.

My style
Geetanjali was traditional genre. Sankarabharanam is more commercial genre. I maintain the versatility for each song and each movie. All my songs are different from each other. I understand the whole script and work alongside the director and the producer. I make sure, the scores fit in the movie in each frame. For Sankarabharanam, I composed tunes and SriJo wrote lyrics. We both are always in sync and fit like two pieces of jigsaw puzzle. He understands my style and pens down beautiful lyrics. I am also very privileged to have Taman and Sunil Kashyap sing for the movie. I am really thankful for them for their gestures. As a music director, it was a big boon for me to have two good composers sing for one.

Friends in the industry 
Director Sujit, and comedian Harish Koyalagundla helped me a lot. Harish particularly compiled my tunes and sent them across to all the studios. He totally had my back and helped me through my journey. Every person I met helped me a lot to reach this phase. It is very tough to succeed here without a mentor. But, I am glad to have reached until here.

My family
My parents stay in Bowenpally. I juggle between USA and India. My daughter is four years old and misses me a lot.

One time, she was watching my video on youtube and was emotional. She understands that her father can’t come and be with her all the time and she wouldn’t show her sadness fearing I might become emotional. My wife, Deepthi, is in USA and I miss them dearly during my trips to India. If I am working on a movie, I come to India and work from here. I have a set up here too. Many a times, I have to be in different geographic locations. But I use technology and get the work done. Also, we need a good team. Fortunately, I have a good team that understands me and works according to the needs and necessity. My next project is Express Raja with UV creations. Saravanand is the lead.

I want to do good projects and sustain as a musician for longer time. I want to do more independent music and try new stuff and get better by time and age. I want to have audience- My own audience and listeners of my music. I want to make best use of my abilities and prove to a good musician that Tollywood can have.

By
Swathi Sriram

Other articles in 'Focus Light:

• Sahi Suresh
• Satya Dev
• Rakesh Mahankali
• Prabhakar
• Naveen Polishetty
• Harish Koyalagundla
• Eshwar Reddy
• Saandip
• Snigdha
• Anil - Bhanu
• Vijaya Bhaskar
• Vinay Varma
• Dr. Josyabhatla Sarma
• Sasikiran Narayana