Kaushik Menon went by his gut feeling when singer S.Janaki suggested to him to move to Chennai to take up music seriously; the Palakkad-bred lad, all of 17 years old then, moved to Chennai. And this, changed his life.
For the uninitiated, Kaushik is the voice behind the melody Aaromale... from the latest Manu Warrier-starrer C/o Saira Banu. But that’s not all, Kaushik is one among the most popular singers of Tamil film industry, best known for the song Natkal Nagarndhu... from Ninaithale Inikkum. He says, “Despite being a Malayalee, I started off in the Tamil film industry, developed a strong foothold there and sang for Telugu and Kannada movies.”
“I guess I’ve sung very few songs in Malayalam , and that is something that saddens me.”
Kaushik with Janaki
He was introduced to music by his mom. “My mom was my first teacher. She wanted to get into playback singing, but back then, it was not possible. I was not encouraged to get into playback singing. In fact, once I sneaked out of home claiming that I was going to the temple, but was instead attending a music reality show. I got punished for it later,” he laughs.
Going back to his connection with Janaki, Kaushik says, “Just after I had completed my 10th standard, Janaki amma had come there to sing and I had the opportunity to sing with her. She asked me ‘why don’t you come to Chennai?’ My life changed completely from that moment. Janaki amma is everything to me; I got the opportunity to sing along with her for quite a few shows. There was this one time when she introduced me as her grandson to all the senior musicians of the industry. That was a huge moment for me. My voice was not mature enough to get into the film industry back then.”
On working with musician Mejjo Joseph for C/o Saira Banu, he says, “It all began with a coincidence. I happened to sing the Telugu version of the song Hridayavum... for the Telugu remake of Notebook. Mejjo did not know about it, but when he heard the song he got in touch with me. This led to my Mollywood debut through the movie Entry, which had Mejjo as the director. I sang the song Nin Mounavum... which was the comeback song of Minmini chechi. When it came to Aromale... I was down with fever during recording, but his encouragement was huge. He is someone who values friendship a lot. I love working with him.”
Kaushik, who also owns a studio, says that his biggest wish is to sing more songs in Malayalam.
