A love affair with the flute

For as long as he can remember, he had secretly cherished a dream of being a cricketer, but instead of wielding his bat on the field, Ashwin Srinivasan chooses to play the flute and manages to bowl over his audiences with soulful melodies.

A musician who equates music with divinity and though most of his compositions stem from Indian classical music, he believes, “It is not all about genres. Music knows just one language — the language of emotions and expressions.”  

Born into a family of musicians, this much sought-after flautist from Mumbai says, “Music came naturally to me and I started playing the sitar when I was just about three years old.” But then, as he grew older, the sitar soon lost out to the flute, an instrument which he was drawn towards by the age of seven, and hasn’t looked back since.

Amongst other inspirations, he candidly admits to having been strongly inspired by one particular Indian classical music concert he once visited. It was during this event that he promptly fell asleep, but not before knowing that music was going to be his way of life.

Having spent most of his teenage years in Bengaluru, where he received his initial training, Ashwin moved to Mumbai riding on a scholarship for Advanced mentoring in classical music. This was to be a decision that led to a lot of conflict with his father, who was apprehensive about Ashwin moving away to a strange city at that young an age but, he smiles and shares, “I now understand that he was just being concerned about me…that he was just being a father.”

Today, having given more than a dozen years to the professional music scene, Ashwin is happy to have worked on several big-ticket Bollywood projects, where his first break came when he worked on the background score of Devdas.

It was Bollywood that gave him a chance to play the main theme-track for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black, besides working on the music of Saawariya, Bhoot, Hum Tum, London Dreams, Singh is King, Paheli, Dhobi Ghat and Aakarshan. Beyond Bollywood, Ashwin has been involved in Mira Nair’s Namesake and Amelia, and Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, amongst other upcoming projects.

But surprisingly, Ashwin attributes his popularity to television and live concerts rather than Bollywood. In the year 2011, his presence on MTV Unplugged (India), gave him exposure as a musician that was enough to outweigh his stint with Bollywood. Recently, he was seen playing a special fusion piece with Taufiq Qureshi and Vijay Prakash in the opening episode of Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar 2, telecast on Star Plus.

Ashwin’s remarkable talent has helped him carve out an exclusive niche for himself. While the list of Indian maestros to have lent credence to his craft include the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Javed Akhtar and Anoushka Shankar, the international names happy to work with a humble performer like him include well established artistes like the Indo-British producer and composer Nitin Sawhney, and the most recent addition to that list being that of the Grammy award winner, Imogen Heap.

In a bid to popularise his brand of music, Ashwin put together a band of four other members to come up with his debut album last year, titled ‘Ashwin and the Bombay Project’. This album, he explains, is essentially “a blend of Indian classical melodies woven with jazz, funk and world folk music.” He goes onto reveal, “In my own little circle, I’m a rebel — I don’t follow gharanas, I’d rather understand the ragas. For me, music is very universal and that’s what the album is all about.”

A compilation of eight melodious tracks, the album definitely makes for a pleasant listen, but a chance to catch Ashwin performing live surpasses this experience. His fabulous flute work is bound to make you sit up and take note of Indian classical music like never before.

As he displays unbridled enthusiasm about his plans for the future, which involve taking his band to perform across India, playing at live concerts and various college festivals among others, he says, “We’re seeking a listening audience that appreciates our music, and the response we’ve received from tier two cities in India has been very promising.”

Between occasional tours with popular music director duo Salim-Sulaiman and performing for the European audiences as an integral part of Nitin Sawhney’s band, Ashwin completed a three-city tour with Nitin in India, enthralling audiences in New Delhi, Mumbai and finally Nasik, where they performed at the Sula Fest in February this year.

Working with other musicians excites him. He shares, “I like making music with other artistes simply for the thrill of being able to communicate with another person, musically.” Currently, in the process of putting together ideas for a second album, Ashwin believes that creating better music is an ongoing process and he’s just getting started.