KGF Chapter 2 has already gone past the Rs 1000 crore mark and the person apart from director Prashanth Neel and Yash, who is getting a lot of attention is the music composer Ravi Basrur.
Life of Ravi Basrur
If the audiences are reaching the theatres to watch KGF Chapter 2 are screaming their throats for Rocky Bhai, it is not just for Yash or director Prashanth Neel. It is also because of Ravi Basrur’s spine-chilling background score and thumping songs.
The overwhelming response to his music has kept his phone ringing, and Ravi has it on silent mode to spend quality time with the family. But this success did not come to him easily. He had gone through a lot of struggles before being in the limelight.
“Today, everyone knows me as Ravi Basrur. As a child growing up, I was just Kiran, one of four kids born into a poor family of sculptors in a village filled with music. There were bhajans, Yakshagana, Shastriya Sangeet, everything. That was the soundtrack to our childhood,” he said.
“My education was always shaky. I failed Class 8, skipped Class 9, and wrote Class 10 exams anyway. I was never concerned checking if I passed or not.”
Working hard being a teenager
Being a teenager, Ravi had decided to move to silicon city and learn more about music. He said, “At 14, I moved to Bengaluru to learn sculpting and also to get linked to the Kannada film industry. I’d work in the morning and do rounds with my keyboard in the evening. But I never got a chance. Someone told me it was the age of computers and I had no idea what that was. With my light savings, I got myself one. I taught myself to make jingles on the computer, but that was still not enough for me. I went to Bombay.”
The music director further explains how he was once seized by Mumbai police for looking like an offender.
“I sculpted idols of Jesus in the morning and visited restaurants and pubs at night to play instruments. Every day for over a year I did this before I got a major contact who would let me play in a popular pub. Later, I quit my job, carried all my instruments, and got there on Monday as discussed, only to learn that there had been a police raid the previous evening and the pub had been shut.”
“I was shattered. There was no job, no accommodation, and I couldn’t even go back to my previous job. I managed to reach the railway station in Thane and learned that there had been a bomb blast that day. The police pulled me up because I looked so ragged. They broke my guitar and tabla to check if there was a bomb but left my keyboard. Finally, I climbed into a train, sat in the toilet, and cried from Bombay to Mangalore. For sixteen hours, I was there.”
Financial problems
The 38-year-old also explained how financial problems in his family had put immense pressure on him and he had considered selling his Kidney to get some money.
“I finally called a hospital in Mangalore and asked if they needed a kidney. Just as they were prepping me for the OT, I got scared. What if they took both my kidneys? What if I died on the table? I told them I needed to go to the toilet and escaped. From there, I did odd jobs and stayed in a public toilet for one month, paying the guard Rs. 3 a day.”
Finally, Ravi decided to go back to Bengaluru to start his life where he had left. Here he still struggled to find shelter and food. He often visited temples for meals as he couldn’t afford to even pay Rs 10.
“After all this, one of my friends noticed how pale I looked, so he took me to meet a man who was also a face reader. The man asked what I wanted. I told him I needed Rs. 35,000 to buy a keyboard. He handed it over to me right there. The man trusted and saw something in me.”
“After that, I did anything that came my way and finally landed an Rs. 15,000-job with a radio station where I heard the word ‘salary’ for the first time. My first movie break came with Arjun Janya Sir and I worked on 64 movies. My 65th movie was Ugramm, my first as a music director. K.G.F my recent release is the first Kannada movie with a multilingual release.”
“Though I made sculptures and worked as a construction worker, goldsmith, silversmith, tailor, and sometimes also a house painter. I have been a programmer, a singer, and a music director. I have learned many things along this journey. I did all kinds of jobs but held on to my dreams and worked towards my goal. If you are passionate and hardworking you will find a way to succeed.
