A reason to smile for Varun Unni

Varun Unni has every reason to be happy. His songs in the recent release 'Escape from Uganda' directed by Rajesh Nair, have been lapped up by the audience. The film's music is an integral part which drives the intense thriller forward.

The 24-year-old engineer is currently in Uganda to work out details of music for the English and Swahili versions of the film.

“I am visiting Uganda for two reasons, to translate the songs of 'Escape...' to English, Swahili and Luganda; and to rope in artistes to sing them. The singers are Jose Chameleon -he is the so-called MJ of Africa and Irene Namubiru, another top artiste here. The second reason is that I am doing an International concert with Chameleon," says Varun. Varun continues, “Africa is a lovely place and the people are great. Interestingly, Ugandans can cook very tasty Indian food! Before coming here, I studied their taste in music."

Varun joined the big league in 2012 with the movie 'Annum Innum Ennum', which was also the debut film of Rajesh Nair. Though the film sank without a trace, the promo song topped the charts.

“I was working for an event management firm when I got a call from Ajay, Rajesh's cousin. He asked me to meet Rajesh. He liked the demo and offered me 'Annum Innum Ennum'. I did the promo track, "Ayo", of the movie and in the first three days of its release, the song got close to 50,000 views on YouTube!"

In keeping with current trends, his composition hit the bull's eye because of the ample time he got to research on the music, says Varun.

“After 'Annum Innum Ennum', I met with a small bike accident. That's when I got to read the script of 'Escape from Uganda'. Fortunately, the bike accident gave me ample time to listen and research on the styles of music. Working for this movie was a challenge in its own ways because I had to find a blend of Afro and Indian music, but it was fun."

Among his future plans is a new album 'Smile'.

“For the past one year I have been working on this album which basically promotes smiling and its importance for the unity of people. For the song, our team began a smile collecting spree and as for now we have collected around 250 smiles. We want to conduct it as a campaign," says Varun who loves to trip with music.

Varun's Mollywood projects make him the busiest bee in town. “There are a few films in the pipeline. 'Gold's own country' is a movie directed by a debutant Piyush, which starts rolling on January and a few others are in the discussion stages."