Ravi Basrur

As someone who earned his place in music the hard way—nearly selling a kidney to keep his family out of poverty—composer, lyricist and filmmaker Ravi Basrur has become known in south Indian music for rousing, resilient songs and lyrics that drive action movies. Born in the village of Basrur in the Udupi district of Karnataka to a family of sculptors, Basrur dropped out of school at a young age and followed his heart when it came to music, moving to Bengaluru to knock on doors in the music industry as a multi-instrumentalist versed in the tabla, keyboard and guitar. He moved to Mumbai in the early 2000s but eventually returned to his home village to help the family trade. Convinced he had to try again, Basrur returned to Bengaluru as a 17-year-old. After assisting at a radio station and working with prolific composer Arjun Janya, Basrur finally made his debut as a composer on Ugramm in 2014. He landed the multilingual film soundtrack for KGF: Chapter 1, delivering grandiose songs like “Salaam Rocky Bhai” for the action flick. Basrur even realised his dream of becoming a movie director along the way, but is best known for power-packed songs for high-octane action movies like KGF: Chapter 2 and Salaar. Expanding into Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam, Basrur has also created songs for films such as Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan and Singham Again.