Living up to the belief that passion never plays small, a pragmatist named Renganaath Ravee, discovering his obsession with cinema, decided to not settle for something less than what he was capable of doing. No matter what the odds were, he followed his heart, blissfully…… Like they say, rest is history.
His life story is nothing less than inspirational. As if fuelled from a fire from within, he valiantly went ahead to defy limits, and surpassed challenges life posed in front of him. All what he felt was the intensity and dedication for what he is doing – his life’s purpose. Renganaath Ravee was born in Cochin, Kerala, where the backwaters kiss the sea, where sky hugs the land and where rhythms blend with breeze… Being a classically trained violinist from the age eight, music is an inseparable part of his life. He is self-trained in keyboard and guitar. Along with music he was also passionate about writing. He was closely associated with All India Radio (AIR) in their youth-oriented program, Yuvavani.
Renganaath Ravee’s journey was driven by passion and filled with surprises. His trails had always been led by devotion and love for pure music. In late 2002, his music band created their first album which was later shelved due to unfortunate reasons. Then he joined as an assistant to K.T. Francis who is one of the best sound engineers in Kerala. Later he moved as a sound recordist to Tharangni studios in Trivandrum owned by Padmabhushan K J Yesudas. It was at this time he was fortunate to work with P. Balan, who is a Green Oscar award winner for his well-known documentary Eighteenth Elephant. Working in the music industry so far, this was a turning point that sparked his altitude to sound design too. This persuaded him to move to Bollywood in 2006. There the exposure and opportunity to meet and greet people from various fields of cinema was immense. He went on to associate with highly celebrated names from Bollywood. There he hit the notes high and the interactions with these masters contributed to transforming his outlook of life- personally and professionally. What truly motivated him was the ardent love for perfection, the heart to innovate in this field and to showcase excellence of sound to the discerning audience.
His indisputable zeal for cinema and a unique perspective he upholds in the realm of sound design helped him cross milestones. The love for mother-tongue can never be beaten- co-incidentally, the first opportunity of being an independent sound designer came from Malayalam cinema. It was with Nayakan that he started his debut as a sound designer. Later on, working with Ace director Gautham Vasudev Menon brought him great altitude, prospects and vision in Tamil film industry. Nadunisi Naygal – it was an experimental film which worked completely on sound design without any support of background music. Renganaath has worked nearly in 50 plus movies, which are both critically and commercially acclaimed, extended in 8 languages (English, Hindi, Ladakhi, Nepali, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu) and an equal number of short films, documentaries and television commercials and has been associated with same directors repeatedly. He is a visiting faculty at several noted film schools and currently lives in Mumbai.
Renganaath Ravee now has embarked into yet another dominion of cinema – Music Composing. For this spirited man who loves cinema more than anything else in life, sound and music join hands to uplift his soul to the next level of ecstasy. Leaving a mark with unsurpassed work notes, distinct sounds, memorable music and some extraordinary movies is a dream that keeps him going. In his own words, it is “worship” in its purest intentions, and a “celebration of life” as a whole. He aspires and desires to expand his expertise into other areas of cinema in the coming years. “When I look back, I find contentment. At every passing day I find revelation, pursuit to discover what I am and meant to be; Every moment of it has been nothing but a ‘celebration’ of my soul’s being.”
