Budapest Symphony Orchestra scores for Indian musical film inspired by ‘The Sound of Music’

‘Music School’, the much-awaited musical with compositions by Ilaiyaraaja is getting final touches in Budapest where the background score of the film was orchestrated and recorded recently.

Featuring 11 songs, ‘Music School’ is written and directed by Papa Rao Biyyala. The film, produced by the Hyderabad-based company Yamini Films, includes 3 songs from the Oscar-winning and much-loved classic ‘The Sound of Music’.

The producers planned to record background music in Budapest to match the quality of the music from ‘The Sound of Music’. “Dr. Ilaiyaraaja has written many parts of the film’s background music for a symphony orchestra,” director Biyyala said. “Hence we approached the Budapest Symphony Orchestra – one of the leading orchestras in the world,” he added.

Earlier, three songs from ‘The Sound of Music’ were orchestrated by the London Philharmonic Orchestra before the shoot of the film. So the music composer and the director thought it would be wise to have an orchestra of equal stature like the Budapest Symphony score the rest of the music of the film.

The recording was done at the Tom-Tom Studio in Budapest and Laszlo Kovacs conducted the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. “I am very happy that Raaja sir gave so much time and involvement to this film,” director Biyyalla said.

‘Music School’ is about how school systems and parents put pressure on children to continue with endless hours of studies, with the hope of producing doctors and engineers, thereby leaving no time for art and leisure activities.

The film’s cast is led by Shriya Saran, Sharman Joshi, Shaan, Prakash Raj, Suhasini Mulay, Benjamin Gilani, Gracy Goswami and Ozu Barua. One of India’s ace cinematographers Kiran Deohans filmed ‘Music School’, which will be screened on September 12 and 18 in the industry/market section at the Toronto International Film Festival.