Acting in films came as a byproduct of my performances on stage: Harsha Vardhan

From where I started to where I am going, everything has been unplanned and a surprise,” begins Harsha Vardhan. In a candid chat, the singer, who his the son of noted composer Vidyasagar, opens up about carving his own identity, stepping into acting, his recent indie song, and whether he discusses his career with dad…‘EACH COMPOSER HAS THEIR OWN STYLE AND WAY OF EXTRACTING WORK FROM MUSICIANS’I listen to a lot of ’90s and 2000s music. Apart from the mainstream commercial hits, there are a lot of underrated songs that my father has done.

Musically, there is so much to learn from them. For instance, there’s Megam Vandhu Pogum from Mandhira Punnagai (2010). It’s a Carnatic song fused with Western arrangements. It’s a tricky song and is extremely tough to sing. I’ve been dissecting that song and learning from it.

As a programmer, I’ve worked with a lot of composers, including AR Rahman sir, GV Prakash, Thaman and Vidyasagar sir. From them, I learnt a lot both musically and also about their approach to doing a background score for a scene.

Each composer has their own style and way of extracting work from musicians. Right now, I’m practising what I’ve learnt from them in my music.‘THERE ARE RESTRICTIONS IN CINEMA; IN INDIE, YOU CAN EXPRESS WHAT YOU FEEL’Now, people are creating their identities beyond cinema. Every artiste is coming up with their own style and persona. So far, it has just been film music. In cinema, you are working for a story, and there are a lot of restrictions. But in indie, you don’t have any restrictions. You can express what you feel.

In the past, I was programming for composers, and all of a sudden, I was performing on stage. Now, I’m releasing indie songs.

I’m getting into acting next. I just want to give my best in any opportunity given to me. I want to keep learning, growing and entertaining people.‘THOUGH I’M INTERESTED IN ACTING, MUSIC WILL ALWAYS BE MY MAIN PRIORITY’Acting in films was never in the books, but that came as a byproduct of my performances on stage. I used to post a lot of cover songs on Instagram. So, people noticed my presence on camera.

That, in turn, converted into an acting opportunity. I’ve committed to a couple of films as an actor. I am waiting for their announcements. Though I am interested in acting, music will always be my main priority. Since I’ve never thought about acting as the main priority, I’ve never thought about anyone in particular to follow.

But I love actors like Dhanush sir, Vijay sir and Vikram sir. Everybody has their own style.‘I WANT TO CHOOSE LIGHT-HEARTED ROMANTIC FILMS’I want to choose light-hearted romantic films, both as an actor and as a composer. I’m in talks to work on a few projects as a composer. For now, I haven’t committed to anything. Films nowadays are raw, rustic and action-heavy. I think there’s a vacuum for light-hearted, romantic films to come up, and I feel like I can fit into that space. As I keep working, maybe I’ll explore more. But for now, this is what I want to do. Given an opportunity, I’ll work in multiple languages.

But, since I’m just starting, I’d now like to explore more of our language, Tamil. And then slowly branch out in the future.‘I want to project myself as an all-rounder’I started off as a musician, and I’ve always been into dancing and performing. I’m also very comfortable in front of the camera. I know what I want to do and how I want to project myself. And that’s as an all-rounder… Not just a singer, dancer, actor or performer. A complete artiste should be able to do everything. If you look at the Korean pop music scene, people are trained from their childhood to sing and dance. In Hollywood, artistes are able to do everything.

That culture is slowly coming here. That way, I’m happy that I’m able to pull off everything on my own.