MUMBAI: A child all of eight was put to learn Tabla to channelize his energies, and he progresses and becomes a musician. Not only is he a composer, but also singer, director for plays, documentaries.

“I got the privilege of working with best in the field at a very early age. Likes of Sai Paranjpe, Girish Karnad, and Satyadev Dubey were the first people in this field I interacted with,” says Ranade.

Hailing from a family of highly educated people, he became the first from his family to take up music as a full-time profession.  “Learning all form of music: vocal and instrumental was an advantage and proved to be fruitful in future. I was asked to direct music to one of the college plays when I was only in 12th standard, despite having no concrete experience in music direction.”

Soon he became an unofficial assistant to his mentor; ace Marathi music director, Late Shri Anand Modak.  In his absence, Rahul looked after his work.  Having worked as a child actor, made him a suitable choice for acting assignments too. He was one of the main characters in the commercially unreleased debut of Aamir Khan- Holi.

He travelled across the world being a part of theatre group and staging plays like Ghashiram Kotwal in India Festival. “The whole experience was life-changing, interacting with people different countries and discipline widened my horizon.” Soon he was known as a multifaceted artiste. That’s when he decided to concentrate only on music. After directing music for copious corporate documentaries, he then directed music for Mahesh Manjrekar’s first film Aai. The collaboration went on to belt out a number of hits, precisely 14, in Hindi films too, including Vasataav-The Reality and Astitva.

Rahul who shares his first name with his idol, Rahul Dev Burman, got plump projects in both Hindi and Marathi and needless to add, he proved his worth every time.  A couple of years ago he composed music for award-winning films like Kaaksparsh, Dr Prakash Baba Amte and recently released Kaccha Limbu.

He also directed a magnum opus by Shankar Mahadevan My Country My Music. “The idea was to get folk music of India on the front. We had our first show in Singapore which was very well received. We as a team are looking forward to presenting more such shows,” emphasizes the music composer.

A columnist who writes on intricate details of music making, a music professor at reputed universities like Mumbai, Pune, Film Institute of India, National School of Drama and Flame University, a music composer of over 200 plays in Marathi and even working with GRIPS theatre on a project with German musicians, Rahul recently accomplished his lifelong dream by a curating one of its kind of event in Pune called Viraasat. The show featured – father-son duos of Louis Banks-Gino Banks, Vidwan Viku Vinayakram-Selva Ganeshan (Ghatam and Kanjira), and brother duos of Kumaresh Rajagopalan, Ganesh Rajagopalan-(Violin), Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ustad Taufiq Qureshi (Tabla and Djembe), with a concept of weaving legacies. Rahul shares, “It was my dream to present this show. I am glad it was a success.”

On being asked his view on current scene of music the prolific musician says, “Every era goes through a cycle, therefore what is good will stay what is bad will be discarded.”

He concludes, “I don’t understand the rush people are in; everyone wants their dairies to be jam-packed. I like to switch off at times and be on my own.”