Gopi Sundar

Close to 5,000 advertising jingles are credited to Gopi Sundar, and ads gave him his first steady work. Born on 30 May 1977 in Kochi, he picked up music early in his father's recording studio and spent his school years more drawn to the tabla and keyboard than to textbooks. In Chennai he trained for a time at the Government Music College and became an assistant to composer Ouseppachan, playing in his troupe for more than a decade. He also handled keyboard programming for the Hindi composer duo Vishal–Shekhar. His first feature score was for Rosshan Andrrews's Notebook; Amal Neerad's Big B was the breakthrough. He now composes, sings and writes songs across Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil cinema, and has acted and performed live. The background score of 1983 won him a National Film Award, and his music for Pulimurugan (2016) was placed on the contender list for the 90th Academy Awards in the original song and score categories. Ustad Hotel (2012), Mumbai Police (2013) and Bangalore Days (2014) are among his other credits. He set up Gopi Sundar Music Company in 2014 to back new musicians, and formed the live act Band Big G in Dubai in 2016. Antappante Athbudha Pravarthikal and Udumbanchola Vision (both 2026) are his latest, and he is attached to score the announced film Band of Brothers.