Ranjith ~ There are months that you hardly have work

Mojo Projects gave me a chance to interview Ranjith K. Govind, who won the Sun TV Saptha Swarangal singing contest in 2001

Mani Sharma introduced Ranjith as a playback singer, calling him
to sing the song "Adugu Adugu" for the Telugu film Bobby (2002) alongside the accomplished singer, Hariharan. Ranjith's first Tamil song was "Hey Penne" from Aasai Aasaiyai (2002), also composed by Mani Sharma.

However, the song which gained Ranjith popularity was "Suppose" from the film Sukran (2005). Ranjith was nominated for the Best Male Playback Singer prize in the Telugu category at the 56th Filmfare Awards South for the song "Entavaraku" from Gamyam (2009).

He has worked often with Yuvan Shankar Raja, Vidyasagar and other music directors in Tamil. His other noticeable songs include Ennamma Kannu from Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam, Senthamizh Pesum Azhagu Juliet from Santosh Subramaniam, Mazhaiye Mazhaiye from Eram, Dole Dole Than from Pokkiri, Adi Rakkamma Rakku from Siruthai, Sollitaley Ava Kaadhala from Kumki, Jingunamani Jingunamani from Jilla, Bang Bang Bang from Aajaan and many more.

1. What success means to you?

Success is when you get to do what you want to do and you have complete joy while you're doing it. Most of the time, we are not really sure about what we want.

We sit somewhere and think, "oh that's the life I need", but when you reach there, most of us are not happy and that's when you realise that's not what we want. That's not going to make us happy.

But there was a time we thought that's where we need to be and it doesn't work. So, for me, success is when you get somewhere, you're happy with that place and you would love to stay there as long as you can and just enjoy doing what you want.

As long as you're living that life to the fullest is when I feel is a success.



2. When was your major downfall while going through this beautiful journey?

Well, I wouldn't call it a downfall but see, life as a musician itself is strange. Work itself is not necessarily frequent or not necessarily have a set timetable for yourself.

You wake up every day you won't know what work you're doing. You get a call a couple of days back.

Unlike a 9 to 5 job where you go and work in the IT firm where you know exactly what are your schedules are. That's not how we live our life.

So, literally, I will wake up one fine morning not really knowing what my days are going to be like and I start taking my calls. People start calling me for my recording and for my work, stuff like that.

There definitely phases where things are not going too great in terms of work. When I say work I mean you're not signed for enough shows. There are months that you hardly have work.

There are multiple reasons. Could be anything. At the end of the day, you realise that it's not really how it used to be. There are phases. There are times when you are super busy where you have time for nothing.



There are days where you have all the time in the world. You doing nothing. You really start wondering, "What am I doing with my life? It has been some time since I had some work. Is this going the right way?"

When things are not going great, you will realise that it is actually a way of life giving you an opportunity to do something more. To kind of bring up something new.

There are times you do something so often, you're tired of it. Everybody gets to it. People will be like, I have been doing this for the longest time, but when the break comes, you can try new things.

Pick up a new instrument and learn something new that you have been wanting to learn. You can start going back to learning. It's amazing. That's what I have discovered. I love when it comes to training.

When you're working you don't get to do so much. Sometimes even if you're working you feel that it is inadequate. You think, "Oh, if I learned a little more, if I knew a little more, I could go further."

But the break comes as when you actually go back to those ideas of start learning whatever you want to learn and pick up new things. new treats, new skills which at the later point will help you.

So I won't really call them downfalls but there are times that I have felt that they are my downfalls. You will feel a little threatened. There are times in your career that you think, "Am I done?" and "Is this it?"

Life has also thought me on how to turn those fears into tools and turn that time into a very productive thing that could give you a better edge over your and whatever you want to do.



3. What do you think is your biggest achievement by far personally?

I have been blessed with the opportunity of a lot of varieties of songs, I think when I entered film playback singing. I realised my greatest joy was that I could experiment every genre of music.

I was trained formally on classical Carnatic music and I also underwent training in multiple genres but when it came to playback, it is literally like a collage of genre.

There are so many different styles and for me, there is a song titled Sollithaley from Kumki, it is a very romantic song. I got to sing it with Shreya Ghoshal. Imman was the composer of the song.

That song I felt it gave me the greatest response from my audience ever. Until then, most of my songs will be very peppy.

Sollithaley was great for me in sense of the response that I got from people like I told you and the kind of people I get to respond as well.

Generally, people have a conception that people who work jobs like drive auto rickshaws, drive taxis, your personal chauffeur, or maybe somebody is working in your house. This kind of people normally enjoys fastest songs, fastest numbers.

But it is from that section of people that I got the best response for a song Sollithaley which is soothing and romantic numbered. Some people come to me and say, "That song has really changed my relationship. It has gotten something more to my life."

That kind of response is I think the greatest achievement I feel for any musicians because what ultimately we look through music is to touch people's heart. That's the ultimate. Then everything else will follow.



4. What is the one quote that you hold on to fondly?

Sometimes we think too much is what I feel about life. Sometimes life is too simple but our situations and the kind of things that we go through in life make us think too much.

We break the ice on things that actually don't need so much of breaking. All that we need is to take it in a more lighter sense and just breeze through.

Every time it's not like so much of hard work that we overdo thing and we turn out overdoing thing. So sometimes I feel like saying that life is an ice cream. Just lick it before it melts. It is as simple as that.



Ranjith performed on 5th May 2018 along with Aalaap Raju and the band, Saindhavi, and Rahul Nambiar. It was a massive success with a full house crowd for Madras An 80's Musical.


If you're interested to go for the other concerts by MOJO Projects then feel free to use my code (Codename: mojo10, Code ID: mojocb10) to get 5% off for the season pass and 10% off for the individual pass!

#MILFF2018

“Malaysian Independent Live Fusion Festival” is the premier Malaysian Indian music festival since 2016, which is brought to you by Mojo Projects Sdn Bhd, a company based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This event brings together many Indian international performers to Malaysia drawing in large numbers of the audience from across Malaysia and abroad. This event has been endorsed by the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism and Culture since it’s inception.

This event focuses on independent, live and fusion music namely from independent bands and film playback singers and even music directors.

This year they present the MOJO Concert Series with 3 concerts in total.

Comprising of 3 themed concerts and the Main Stage event.

Triple Treat - A Battle of the Bands | 9th June |
6pm-1130pm Hotel Istana KL

Rahman Retro - A Tribute | 7th July | 6pm – 11pm
Hotel Istana KL

The Mainstage - #MILFF2018 | 8 Sept 2018 
6pm -12am | Bukit Kiara Indoor Arena

For more information check out:

https://airasiaredtix.com/milffconcert2018

If you're interested to go for the other concerts by MOJO Projects then feel free to use my code (Codename: mojo10, Code ID: mojocb10) to get 5% off for the season pass and 10% off for the individual pass!



Watch the video here: