Srinidhi Venkatesh – Female sound engineer of A.R. Rahman

Srinidhi Venkatesh is a sound engineer of Indian film industry, best known for her association with A. R. Rahman. Rockstar, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Tamasha, Mohenjo Daro and Raanjhanaa are among her major Bollywood projects, composed by A. R. Rahman. OK Kanmani, Kadal, Kochadaiiyaan, Lingaa, I etc are some of Tamil films which she worked in the sound department of A. R. Rahman.  She is married to Tamil film director Vikram Kumar of 13 B and 24 fame.

Srinidhi Venkatesh was born in Indonesia, and she lived there till the age of 8. Initially she was attracted towards songs of Micheal Jackson. When she moved to Chennai in the early 1990s, songs of Roja and Thalapathy made her love Tamil music. She became a close friend to two kids of iconic sound engineer H. Sridhar best known for his association with Rahman, and that’s how the curiosity in this profession paved her way to it. Whenever she went to their home, she started observing music equipment. Later she made her mind to choose this profession and enrolled for a course.

She joined A. R. Rahman’s studio for her internship for 8 weeks, and at the time of its completion she desired to stay there for long. So she wrote to Rahman for a job opportunity and got reply to attend the interview. Raavan was the first project she associated with Rahman.

Srinidhi Venkatesh – Some interesting and less-known facts

Srinidhi Venkatesh at her marriage ceremony with director Vikram Kumar

1. She prefers less-glamorous professions and that’s how sound engineering became her popular career choice.

2. The most challenging part of her job is to work in the late evenings and night, and go to home at dawn. She gets her sleep and then has a brunch.

3. Her job interview with A. R. Rahman lasted for just 30 seconds, and knowing her interest Rahman asked her to join the session.

4. Chali Kahaani from Tamasha was the toughest song of her career. With so many layers and different voices, it was a challenging job to do sound mixing of this particular track.

5. She has sung and released a music video titled ‘Lonely Sound’. She was the female voice behind Anirudh’s single ‘Avalukkenna’.