How Vikram Vedha transformed music composer Sam CS' career with consecutive film offers

Filmmaker duo Pushkar-Gayathri’s Vikram Vedha was one of the most successful films of 2017 in Tamil cinema. The gangster drama, which pitched Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi as arch-rivals, garnered both critical and commercial acclaim. While the film’s triumph was essential to everyone involved in the project, it turned out to be a career-changing movie for music composer Sam CS, who landed consecutive offers from production houses and is currently working in nearly ten films simultaneously. “Post Vikram Vedha, I was flooded with offers. I’m not boasting, but every week, I would get at least two scripts. Two days after the release, director AL Vijay sir called me to compose music for Diya. But, I’m not in a rush, and I’m choosing projects that demand good music. For instance, Vanjagar Ulagam is a film made for music; concept and script-wise, it has an outstanding content. Vijay Devarakonda’s NOTA has just one or two tracks, but there is a lot of scope for the background score,” Sam CS told Firstpost in this exclusive conversation. [caption id=“attachment_4461067” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Sam CS. Image from Twitter.[/caption] Sam CS is currently the most in-demand film composer in Tamil cinema with a bevy of projects under various stages of production. He’s presently working on Arulnithi’s Iravukku Aayiram Kangal, Gautham Karthik-Thiru’s Mr. Chandramouli, Jiiva-Shalini Pandey’s heist comedy Gorilla, Prabhu Deva’s dance drama Lakshmi, Jayam Ravi’s Adanga Maru, Vijay Deverakonda’s NOTA and the Guru Somasundaram-starrer Vanjagar Ulagam. He has also forayed into Mollywood with Mohanlal’s Odiyan, for which he will compose the background score. “I can’t reveal details now. But, I’m making my Bollywood debut too this year,” he says. Sam CS says his career can be divided into before Vikram Vedha and after Vikram Vedha. Sam was not confident about Vikram Vedha’s box-office success although he was positive that it would fetch critical acclaim. “Because, movies like Guna, Anbe Sivam took years to attract general audience’s appreciation. People celebrated those films only decades after the release. There are a lot of people with great talent, but it takes one solid victory for people to notice their ability,” he noted. Early this year, reports were rife that Sam CS was in talks with Thala Ajith’s Viswasam and Thalapathy Vijay’s Thalapathy 62 before the teams roped in D. Imman and AR Rahman for the respective projects. “Only two of my films were released when they approached me. So, I actually feel blessed that I was ‘considered’ for the projects. I was in talks with the production house of Viswasam. But, certain things do take time to fall into place. That how I see this. But, I will be surely working on a film for Ajith sir soon, and the talks are already on. The reason I’m not working in Viswasam is not bad. It’s for a good reason,” he revealed. Regarding Thalapathy 62, Sam said, “I was in talks with Murugadoss sir and others for the film. I was one of the three composers who was considered. I’m extremely happy that Rahman sir is on board. I’m a crazy fan of ARR sir and have memories of standing in long queues to buy cassettes of his albums.”