Meet Hemanth Jois, a 28-year-old music composer who is currently composing music for the Kannada film Yentha Kathe Maraiyya and Single. Both films are directed by Rakshit Teerthahalli. Hemanth has earlier composed music for films such as Statement 8/11 (2011) and Aranya Kanda (2017).
Like his predecessors, Hemanth’s journey to filmdom too, was not devoid of hardships, but the youngster was not deterred by his struggles as “music is my passion”. Today he is a known name with his own music channel by the name Hemath Jois where he releases his independent songs.
His songs ‘Khushi’ and ‘Ram Darbar’, have gone viral. The song, composed by Jois also features playback singer Chethan Naik, who is part of a Kannada Rock band with Hemanth called The Naik and Jois Project. Hemanth holds the song ‘Ram Darbar’ close to his heart. “The song was shot in the age old Kapileshwara Temple in Teerthahalli in the light of a 1,000 lamps.The song is a fusion of Hindustani classical and Rock.”
Hemanth has bagged a few awards including KIMA best indie artiste and the Shankarnag Youth Icon Award (2017).
A fan of Linkin Park, Hemanth says he also watched the band’s live performances. “That is when I felt that there were no Kannada Rock bands apart from Raghu Dixit. That inspired me to take to music full time,” says the composer, who is a self-taught guitarist. “I went through college, job and work. I gave it all up to pursue a career in music.”
Hemanth says making a mark as a composer is tougher than being an independent musician. “For films, you have to convince a whole segment of people before you put out your music. As an independent musician, however, you have the freedom to put out what your heart believes in.”