Call him an RJ, lyricist or an activist who is extremely concerned about people. This RJ manages to flutter the hearts by floating kisses to the listeners, which makes them feel very special. BIG FM 92.7 RJ Anirudh, while speaking Radioandmusic.com talks about his journey and films in this section of Rendezvous.
I commenced my career working at the age of 18 with a radio station called Rimjhim Radio, an Indian radio station. The only thing to my benefit was not having a Canadian accent. The owner invited me as a guest on her show and my interview was conducted on air and I was on board.
My inclination towards music came from my parents. My father was an ardent fan of Mukesh and mom admired Lata. This made me watch all the films This is how I started appreciating those songs. The inclination towards music made ma watch all the films. I have even watched films like 11000 Ladikyan with Mala Sinha in the film.
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After I returned to India, for a couple of years I worked with All Indian Radio (AIR). This is where I got to meet most of the stalwarts of the industry. The show was a good excuse for me to meet the wish list of people which included names like Asha Bhosale, Dev Anand, Tanuja, Amitabh Bachchan. My biggest break was an interview with was with Lataji which was like a six hour interview which was divided into two sessions.
A lot of them told me that I have a unique style of interviewing which is much different from others. From AIR I moved to Radio City and then BIG FM. Initially I hosted a late night show called Anirudh Uncensored which was about sexuality, love, relations. The sole purpose was understand the issues of youth be its homosexuality, heart aches, break ups. This sent a wave of shock to my earlier audiences since they always heard me being soft and romantic. Right now I host a show called Anirudh LLB which is aired at 2-5 pm. The songs I play are not generally heard by the youngsters but my voice makes them tune to the show. My listeners know that Anirudh will play a few rare songs or the ones which are not played that often which sets me apart from the others.
The times they are a-changin – Bob Dylan’s popular song – couldn’t have rung more true than present-day. I am a renowned kiss freak and I am happy to have developed my own style which is peppy energetic and youth oriented. When my mother heard me kissing on the radio for the first time, she stood shell shocked. The only thing I told her was, “yeh dilip kumar ka nahi emran hasmi ka zamamna hai.” So the idea is to change with the time.
To create a visual persona I thought nothing could be better than a kiss. Now its become very funny I give all these various flavoured kisses, like gulab jamun, blueberry etc. Its all about playing with people’s minds.
My main challenge is to cater to the older audiences since they like maturity. I try to keep my show lighter and not so encyclopedic which makes everyone happy. The RJ also has made the use of his facebook and twitter page. He asks the fans to post the video of the songs. My listeners post a running commentary while the show is on which gives me a hint of the likings and the disliking of my listeners.
Balls is an extension of what I did earlier on the show. As the poster suggests the film basically gets people talking about sex. While I was on radio I noticed that people just could not talk about their emotional problems to their near and dear ones. But they did share a lot of things on radio due to its anonymity. Thus I gathered 12 people from different walks of life that actually had the balls to talk about sex. I have covered various topics like love, domestic abuse, and rape. The film was launched on social networking sites. We haven’t really gone to the censor board for the same.
If people think that the film would tarnish my reputation, then no. I would rather say it will enhance. The way I look at it is the youth is extremely open and excited to talk about sex. My target audience is youth. I spoke about the things which are very relevant to everyone today. Its about the way you do it. My reputation on radio helped me a lot since I am known to the one who is concerned about people. When they audiences see the film, which is not at all a cheap titillating thing. I am not Mostly when I am not recording I am relaxing at home. I sleep at 4 am so I get up by 12 pm. I listen to show then I get to know what could be added. I love travelling. I have been to many places like Scotland, Italy, Mexico and some other parts of Europe. I like music and I have written lyrics for my songs.
Over the years the radio content has become extremely bolder, funnier and more in your face. Now we are willing to make fun of actors, legends. Of course we have lost the purity of the language. People also have become very much open to talk about anything under the sun.
(Radioandmusic.com has been constantly trying to innovate and provide readers with the best information about the goings-on in the industry. We are happy to introduce the special section titled ‘Musical Rendezvous’. The objective: delve deeper into the minds of senior professionals from the radio and music industries, to understand trends and developments and get other insights about the way forward. A big ‘thank you’ to all for supporting this endeavour- giving our reporters time and knowledge- so we can share it with our readers).
