the content of this article is extracted from the karthik raaja special audio, originally broadcast on mostlytamil.com on 16 Apr 2002, on the occasion of the tamizh new year.
this program was recorded as a discussion between composer Karthik Raaja and a few representatives of mostlytamil.com in Chennai, India. The questions that were asked too were from a compilation of mostlytamil.com listeners.

kindly understand that the response provided in english is only a gist and not an exact transcript of the audio.

for the first movie, there definitely was tension. i have worked with Appa a lot, almost for a 100 movies, since childhood. Appa wanted Panchu (Arunachalam) Sir to introduce me as a composer. Panchu Sir was also interested in the same. Thus the movie Alexander was announced with me as the composer. The poojai for the movie started with the recording. The first recorded song was Nadhiyoram Veesum Thenral . Before the recording of the song, i had insisted that Appa should sing a shloka for he is my career guru. Even a mention of my name reminds everyone of Appa and everyone knew me only as his son, so it was my desire to start off with his blessings. I had requested Appa and he too agreed to sing. He sang the shloka, sang the first line of nadhiyoram veesum thenral to my tune and blessed me. Then we had the song recorded in the voices of Bhavatharini and Unnikrishnan. There was a lot of tension, producers and everyone was present, needed to impress them with the music too and also wanted the very first song should come out good. That was the desired outcome of my efforts and i was very satisfied that the song was a hit in the movie.

each composer has his sources of inspiration. even dr.ilayaraaja has mentioned some of his in prior interviews, hailing from the same region as the two big name composers dr.ilayaraaja and a.r.rahman, how much do you think you are inspired/influenced by them ? would it be possible for you to provide a percentage wise breakup between the influence of the two ?

as i told, i have been influenced by Appa a lot. Right from a small age, the very desire to make music came from Appa having observed his style of working and work ethics. Rahman is also a very good musician, in fact both of us have worked together under Appa. Worked as in, not involved in the creative part of composing, but both of us would play the notes provided by Appa. We are very good friends and i appreciate rahman's music a lot. He is a very good music director and in recent times, no one has been able to capture his position.He has brought and sustained a trend with sound quality. Of his music, i liked the music of Roja a lot. Otherwise, from the rare occasions when i chance to listen/watch television i liked Snehidhane Snehidhane. I can't say that he has inspired me though. As for inspiration, i listen to classical music, western classical or carnatic. Taking inspiration from them, i like to present them in modern presentation/idioms, and not sticking to the classical format as such. Everything has already been done, there isn't anything new as such to be done.i try to mould in my own patterns. So, if you want to specify, you could put down an influence of maybe 5 to 10% of rahman's music on mine, and the remaining should be Appa's and Mozart's

in the movie, kaathala kaathala, for the song 'thagitathithom annachi' song, was sung by the dr.ilayaraaja himself. was there any specific reason, and how was the experience of dictating a tune to a music legend ?

the situation was described as the characters getting caught up (in the web of their own lies), my inspiration was from a jazz album of Nat King Cole. A small bit of music that was composed by him, (hums the tune..). I liked that piece a lot and I was told that the producers had decided on Appa singing the song. I wanted to give something very challenging to Appa too and decided that would work on a modification to the idea from the bit of music. I composed the song, and the lyricist Valee too penned the lyrics, 'Thagitathithom annachi'. When Appa heard the song, he was very inquisitive and surprised, inquiring What are the words ? However, he also finished recording the song in a maximum of about 15 mins and took leave. Appa had been accompanied by a friend of his from Australia, David (Herring). Appa mentioned that David also had a nice voice and i could make him sing too. David thus sung part of the chorus in the song. The idea for Appa to sing the song came due to his previous singing of Thangidatha tha (from Kizhakku Vaasal). An ability to pronounce tamizh words and nuances with clarity, as far as i know, among male singers, as of now, it is only Appa , the rest of the singers,have some telugu, malayalam or other influences.

in one of his interviews, dr.ilayaraaja had mentioned that one of his favorite tunes was the one composed by his son, but didn't mention which song it was or if it was composed by you or yuvan. would be able to confirm which song it is ?

the song that Appa mentioned/referred to lots of people is the song which came out later in Grahan as Aaj main khush hoon. I had programmed the score of the song in my computer some time back. Once while travelling, i asked Appa to listen to the score. After listening, he mentioned, hey, this is nice. can we record it tomorrow ? . i was surprised and agreed on the condition that he and janaki aunty sang it. We recorded the song the next day with tamizh lyrics as netru vandha kaathu en paattai kondu to the tune. Appa has mentioned that he likes the song a lot, so i think he may have meant that song in the interview.

this is only a partial update of the program and remaining content is to be added at a later date.

sincere acknowledgements to Suthaharan Sivasubramanium and Mani Vaasagam of MostlyTamil.com in making the audio available.