Aditya Rao: My collaboration with Madhavan began over a bowl of ramen noodles

Indian-American singer-songwriter Aditya Rao, known for his work in Pelé and Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada, has worked as a singer and vocal arranger in R Madhavan’s directorial debut film Rocketry: The Nambi Effect. The Texas-based musician tells us that his chance to work with Madhavan happened because of a meal he shared with the actor. “I first got introduced to Madhavan sir five years ago over a bowl of ramen noodles at a restaurant in Los Angeles, all thanks to my wife responding to a story that Madhavan had posted on Instagram, where he was asking for vegetarian food recommendations in town.That’s where it all began,” he beams.
The musician credits Madhavan for being open to new ideas. “He’s one of the most genuine souls I’ve ever met. Madhavan sir is a no-nonsense guy and makes you feel like a true partner and collaborator rather than someone who was hired to do the job. He’s open to new ideas and is equally supportive and encouraging when it comes to implementing the ideas. That is not something you come by very often,” smiles Aditya.
Aditya has voiced two songs in the movie — Peruvali and En Kanmani, both written by Dr Nambi Narayanan. “We spent two years working on the Tamil songs, closely interfacing with Nambi sir. Although that may seem like a long time, it’s a completely unique challenge to be given the honour to try to do justice to the man’s words himself, especially when you know they were far more than just words,” he says adding, “Fast forward to the latter half of 2020, I became the singer, vocal arranger, and lyric coordinator for the same two songs in all the other Indian languages —Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. It was a fantastic opportunity where I got to wear so many different hats. I also got to learn from some of the best people on the team as well as incredible lyricists — both established and upcoming — to bring Nambi sir’s story to life.”
The singer, who has worked in Hollywood projects, also recently released his new indie song titled SnD. “SnD or simply Sound also stands for Sa Ni Dha which are the literal names of the notes that I sing in the song. The song is about my love for music,” he says.