Vijay Prakash’s road to success was a tough one. The singer, who shot to fame after A.R. Rahman’s song Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire won an Oscar, kick-started season two of MTV’s Coke Studio. Vijay, who also collaborated with musicians Clinton Cerejo and Hitesh Sonik on the show, tells us about his journey in the music industry and talks about his life post Jai Ho.
Talking about his journey in the industry Vijay shares, “It has been an encouraging journey. I am from Mysore and when I came to Mumbai in 1996, I was living on the basic minimum finances. I was an engineering student when I decided to give up education and pursue my passion for music. I ran away from my hometown leaving a note for my parents and decided to follow my dreams.”
And coming to Mumbai didn’t mean instant success. That’s where the struggle began. “It was really tough initially and sometimes I would just have one shirt to wear as there was no money to buy a new one. But destiny had its own plans. I somehow got in touch with the right
people from the industry,” says the singer who is also setting up his own studio in Mumbai.
And the journey of success truly began after Jai Ho. A huge fan of A.R. Rahman’s the singer-turned-composer says life has changed completely after the success of the song and the world tour series with Rahman.
“There has been a drastic change in my career after that song. Rahman Sir will always be really special to me as he recognised my music by giving me a chance to be part of Jai Ho. It’s only after that song that people really began to recognise my work. It has been a torch for everything I’ve done in the past and I’ll always be grateful to him.”
He has also sung for legendary music composers like Illayaraja, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Yuvan Shankar Raja to name a few and is now a popular face on the second season of Coke Studio too. Talking about the concept of the show, the singer says, “It’s a platform where we recreate melodies keeping both contemporary and traditional genres in mind.”
In fact, even for his dream project as a musician, Vijay wants to do something similar. “I want to collaborate with artistes from around the county and compile an album which presents India’s cultural heritage. Every state here has its own music and I want to bring that to the fore,” he says.