Ajay and Sinjith's indie leap with Aarambham

New Indian Express

7 days ago

How did you both meet?
Ajay: We actually had a well-known composer on board for the film initially, but things didn't work out, there were delays, and we eventually had to come out of that agreement. Around that time, through a bunch of mutual friends, I came across Sinjith's name and sent him an email. But… he blocked me! (laughs) Honestly, I didn't know how to write a formal email. I just wrote something like, 'Hi bro, I'm Ajay. I made a film and want you to compose music for it.' He probably thought it was spam. But I didn't give up. I managed to get his personal contact from someone, went to his house, knocked on the door and said, 'Hey, I'm the guy who emailed you'. That's where it all began. I showed him some promos and behind-the-scenes footage from the film. His Instagram already had a lot of great music samples, so I felt he'd be perfect for this film. Eventually, I convinced (or maybe forced!) him into joining the project. He became what I call the 'forced child labour' of this film. (laughs)
Sinjith: (Laughs) Yeah, that email was super fishy, with no structure, no context — so I just blocked it. At that point, I was mainly doing Hindi and Telugu music independently, and I was also working in cinematography. I had taken a step back from the camera because I wanted to focus on making my own music. But I wasn't confident about doing an entire score for a feature film. Up until then, I'd only done ads and short snippets. But something changed during the final stages of mixing. That's when I felt this strong sense of purpose, like this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And from there on, I knew I wanted to pursue music for films seriously.
How did you manage to complete the film in such a short time?
Ajay: We shot the entire film in 22 days — pure survival instinct. Funds were running out, and we had to be incredibly efficient. Usually, small films avoid outdoor shoots because they're expensive. You have to arrange for accommodation, food, logistics and a large part of the budget goes into that. But I knew this location in the Western Ghats because that's where I did my diploma in theatre. It's an offbeat theatre school, deep in the forest, with no mobile network. When you go there, you leave everything behind and just study the craft. While I was there, I had noticed some stunning locations. So for the film, we just went back, knocked on doors, and asked locals if we could shoot there. It was totally grassroots filmmaking. We were clear we had only about 16 to 20 days to finish the shoot, and any delay could mean we'd run out of money. We worked day and night, and added about four extra days just for the songs. In the end, we wrapped everything including 25 call sheets in about 22–23 days.