Do you know Illayaraja’s Condition for ‘Music School’?

Three songs from “The Sound of Music” will appear in the soon-to-be-released film “Music School” for the first time ever in Indian cinema.

One of the most cherished films of all time is still “The Sound of Music.” Songs from the film continue to enthral audiences across the world today.

Three songs from ‘The Sound of Music’ will now appear in the soon-to-be-released Telugu-Hindi film ‘Music School’ for the first time ever in Indian cinema history.
The movie comprises 11 songs in total, all of which were overseen by music maestro Ilaiyaraaja. The three songs from the Hollywood musical drama, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and based on the real-life story of the von Trapp family, are “Do-Re-Mi,” “So Long Farewell,” and “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.”

The man who created and directed “Music School” is Papa Rao Biyyala, who is responsible for pulling off this seemingly unattainable feat.

With his story about the strain on kids to live up to the academic expectations of parents and society, the former IAS officer, UN official based in Kosovo, and the man behind the Clean Sports India movement is making his directorial debut in feature films.

When Papa Rao Biyyala decided to use music to create his film, he knew that songs from “The Sound of Music” would work perfectly in it.

Papa Rao said, negotiations for the rights stretched over many years before he was able to acquire the necessary permissions to use the original English songs in his movie.

Papa Rao recalled: “It was an interesting negotiation. But they were kind enough to give me the rights and I’m very lucky to get them. Nobody has been given permission to use so many songs.

“I first submitted the script. Then they asked me for details like how our lyrics are going to be. So they saw all these and they read the script and then they gave the rights. At that time, I was working with United Nations. So I used to go to New York very often.”

In 1998, Papa Rao won a National Award for his short documentary “Willing to Sacrifice.” Before he finally got around to filming “Music School,” he had been mulling the idea over for more than a decade.

After obtaining the song’s rights, Papa Rao hired seasoned music director Ilaiyaraaja to create the soundtrack. Ilaiyaraaja was excited to join the initiative, but there was one stipulation, according to Papa Rao.

“As soon as he heard that we have the ‘Sound of Music’ rights, he said let’s do it. He has a lot of respect for the authors of the music, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. (Ilaiyaraaja’s) The only condition was that we would score this music only in London. I said ‘yes’. So we scored these three songs with the London Philharmonic Society Orchestra.”

The background music for the film was subsequently composed by Ilaiyaraaja and recorded with the Budapest Orchestra.

Along with the star singer Shaan, Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson, and Gracy Goswamy, best known for her portrayals of Nandini Shekhar in “Balika Vadhu” and Amrit Sahani in “Kyun Utthe Dil Chhod Aaye,” in supporting roles, “Music School” also stars Sharman Joshi, Prakash Rao, and Suhasini Mulay.

The bilingual film will hit theatres on May 12 after being dubbed in Tamil and shot in Hindi and Telugu.