After making a mark in their own field, Tollywood’s top stars are now venturing into the singing arena. Pawan Kalyan is the latest actor to pick up the mic. His song for the upcoming film Agyathavasi has managed to strike all the right chords. He joins the ranks of actors like Balakrishna, Jr NTR, Ravi Teja and Venkatesh who have all sung songs that are on top of the charts.
“It’s purely their star power that makes these songs so successful. All these actors have a huge fan following and people are eager to hear the voice of their favourite stars. They take the entire credit for the album and I feel they deserve it,” says R.P. Patnaik, music director. He adds that the same album composed for any small star would take its time to have such an impact, depending on how good it is.
Just a little while before Pawan Kalyan’s hit number, actor Akhil, too, crooned a number for his film Hello, which also went viral. Ravi Teja’s song Notanki Notanki from Power and Jr NTR’s Follow follow from his film Nannaku Prematho also ruled the charts. Balakrishna tried his hand at singing in his last film Paisa Vasool and his song Mama Ek Peg La was a big hit.
“When I heard the lyrics, I told director Puri that I wanted to sing this song and he immediately told Anup Rubens, the music director. The entire recording of the song was done in one hour,” said Balakrishna in an earlier interview. “For this song, Puri Jagannadh and I wanted a different voice and Balakrishna agreed to sing it and came on board. We had already heard him croon live at an event organised to raise funds for Hudhud victims, couple of years ago,” says Anup Rubens, music director of Paisa Vasool and Hello. When it comes to singing, Akhil, unlike the other actors, went all out and even practised for a while.
Akhil has a good voice. I heard him when he was randomly singing a Hindi song and I asked him to try it in this film. He agreed but asked me to teach him the basics like where to go high and where to go low. So, he practiced for a few months and finally performed like a professional,” says Anup Rubens, the music director. But is technology being used to enrich these songs? “Yes, there is a software that corrects a singer’s voice modulation. With the latest technology, if a word or a letter is pronounced wrong, you can correct those with the software,” says Patnaik while Anup agrees and adds, “When the singer is not a professional, we use a software which corrects the modulation of the voice.”
