Varun Unni is an Indian composer and singer. He made his film composing debut in 2012, with the Malayalam film ''

Annum Innum Ennum ''Annum Innum Ennum'' ( en, Then, Now and Forever) is a 2013 Malayalam film directed and scripted by Rajesh Mohanan, starring Jishnu Raghavan, Nishan, Siddique, Fareisa Joemmanbaks, Tashu Kaushik and Radhika. Produced by Usha Rajesh under the ...

''. He has been predominantly composing for

television commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

besides having sporadic music video releases.

Early life and career

Varun Unni was born on 15 July 1989 in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

, Kerala. He did his schooling at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Vaduthala in

and went on to graduate from engineering at Adi Shankara College of Engineering, Kalady. Although devoid of any background in films, Varun's first priority was always film music. After training at Kalabhavan, he went on to work with bands like ''Highway Haze'' and ''Flying Squad''. He lists

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

and

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

as his greatest influences.

Film composing career

Though his debut film bombed at the box office, Varun's debut work "Ayyo" from

was noticed. His second film with the same team failed again at the box-office. He shifted focus to composing jingles for advertisement films and associated with famous brands like Chemmanur and MCR. In 2017, he was offered the

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

film ''Kempegowda-2'', a spin-off of ''

Kempe Gowda Kempe Gowda I, locally venerated as Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda, or commonly known as Kempe Gowda, was a chieftain under the Vijayanagara Empire in early-modern India. He is famous for founding the present-day southern Indian city of Bangalore. E ...

'', the Kannada remake of ''

Singam ''Singam'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Hari, and produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja under his Studio Green banner in association with Reliance Big Pictures, and distributed by Sun Pictures. It stars Sur ...

''. The film opened to a favourable response and Varun subsequently signed more films in Kannada, including ''Kongka Pass'' with the same team.

Music videos

''Smile''

In 2013, Varun produced a social cause album titled ''Smile'' featuring five singles by Shwetha Mohan as well as songs by upcoming singers

Suchith Suresan Suchith Suresan (born 24 August 1987) is an Indian playback singer in the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada film industries. Personal life Suchith Suresan was born to C. Suresan, a retired government servant and a reputed painter who focus ...

and

Yazin Nizar Yazin Nizar, also credited as Yasin, is an Indian playback singersinging predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi -language films, with over 600 film songs with several multi lingual chart busters. Yazin has rendered film son ...

. It was released by the indie music label Tune4 Music.

''Second Rain''

In 2017, Varun Unni composed the music for the music movie ''Second Rain'' (Peyyum Mazhaye), produced and directed by Lijo Augustin, with cinematography by A. Kumaran of '' Thanga Magan'' fame. The video also featured Arundhati, who starred in the Tamil film ''

Saithan ''Saithan'' () is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Pradeep Krishnamoorthy. The film stars Vijay Antony in a dual role with Arundhati Nair, Charuhasan, Y. G. Mahendra, Siddhartha Shankar and Kitty amongst o ...

''. The lyrics and video of the song narrate a tale of romance where rain acts as the predominant backdrop to important moments in the love story of a young couple. The video also features a short climactic fight sequence, for which Varun composed the background score. The song was released via

Muzik 247 Muzik 247 based out of Chennai, acquires music rights for South Indian Cinema films, mainly Tamil, Malayalam and Tulu. The company was founded in 2012 by Naveen Bhandari, and has achieved a large market share of the Malayalam film music. About ...

. The vocals were by

Shweta Mohan Shweta Mohan (born 19 November 1985) is an Indian playback singer. She has received four Filmfare Awards South for Best Female Playback Singer, one Kerala State Film Award and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award. She has recorded more than 700 so ...

and

Ranjith Ranjit or Renjith may refer to: Religion * Anton Ranjith Pillainayagam (born 1966), Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Colombo * Malcolm Ranjith (born 1947), Sri Lankan Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, C ...

, with programming by

Ashwin Sivadas Ashvin or Ashwin or Ashwan (; bn, আশ্বিন; hi, आश्विन; or, ଆଶ୍ୱିନ; Malay/ Indonesian: ''Aswin''; Thai: ''Asawin''), also known as Aswayuja, is the seventh month of the lunisolar Hindu calendar, the solar ...

Upcoming work

As of 2019, Varun has signed films

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

languages. His first release of 2019 would be the Kannada film '' Kempe Gowda-2'', for which he has composed

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

and songs.

Film discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unni, Varun Living people Musicians from Kochi Indian male playback singers Film musicians from Kerala Malayalam film score composers 1989 births Indian male film score composers