It was a whim, and the question of “whatever happened to him?”, that prompted me to look up ADK, more famous in Tamil Nadu as Dinesh Kanagaratnam, on Instagram.
The Sri Lankan hip hop artiste, who shot to fame after remixing Ceylon Manohar’s ‘Surangani’ (which then found its way to Tamil cinema, courtesy Vijay Antony, as the song ‘Aathichudi’ in the 2009 film TN-07 AL 4777 ), had popped up in my playlist for a track named ‘Lityananda’.
Of particular interest to me was the character featured on the track’s poster; the art bearing an eerie likeness to the self-styled fugitive godman Nithyananda who fled the country last year after being charged on counts of rape, child abuse and kidnapping. Nithyananda, then, infamously, set up a micronation named Kailasa — believed to be on an island he purchased, and has holed up in this place, the whereabouts of which have yet to be conclusively established, along with his followers.
Divining inspiration
I reached out to Dinesh, who is presently stationed in Singapore, where, unlike many major cities across the world, no lockdown restrictions have been enforced.
ADK/Dinesh Kanagaratnam
He makes it clear that ‘Lityananda’, with its quirky and funny double entendre lyrics, is by no means a misplaced tribute, or anything remotely close to it, for a personality who is on the run from law enforcement.
“I don’t believe anybody who calls oneself God. I’m aware that this song will definitely attract negative comments from his ‘devotees’, but I just wanted to make people laugh. During this time, when everyone’s minds is on the pandemic, I did not want to do a song on the Coronavirus. I wanted to make a song on someone who escaped the virus,” he laughs, and adds: “If you think about it, [Nithyananda] had the foresight, didn’t he? He knew he had to quarantine. That is why he ran.”
It was the “lyrical” nature of Nithyananda’s now infamously famous social media sermons that inspired Dinesh to write ‘Lityananda’. “I used to have a good laugh listening to what he spoke, and though all of us mock him, it was inspiring. All kinds of people inspire my creative irrespective of whether they are good or bad,” he says.
Lityananda’s verse reflects this sentiment albeit in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Sample this line: “ Kailasam pogalam jollya oyla , OLA- willa booku panni all ah pogalama , Somarasam irukudu kinnathila baama , Kudicha John Cena can see me how ma .”
A poster for the track ‘Lityananda’ by ADK/Dinesh Kanagaratnam and Ofro
But using a third party’s likeness to promote material seldom is a straight path. It could attract legal troubles. “But it isn’t Nithyananda who is on the poster,” says Dinesh; his response prompting me to take another look at the art design. “It is me in that photo,” he adds.
Dinesh explains thus: “If you are an actor and you wish to impersonate someone, then you need to look at least 90% similar to that person. I have long held an acting desire, and since I cannot be a part of a feature film, I thought I could be in the poster. And Lityananda is not Nithyananda. He is another godman,” laughs Dinesh.
A few regrets
Dinesh collaborated with music producer OfRo, known for his work in filmmaker Pa Ranjith’s The Casteless Collective and his association with the Tamil rapper Arivu on the independent album Therukural , for ‘Lityananda’.
OfRo/Rohith Abraham
“OfRo (real name Rohith Abraham) is a crazy, super cool guy. We met a long time ago in Harris Jayaraj’s studio.” Dinesh had crooned for ‘Universal Cop’ track for Suriya’s Singam franchise film, S3 . “We were supposed to do a song four years ago but I couldn’t concentrate as I was working with many music producers at that point. In fact, I did graphic design on Therukural ,” says Dinesh, who is an art director by trade.
I mention that “Tamil Twitter” (the colloquial collective noun used to refer to twitterati tweeting on Tamil popculture content) had been raving about ‘Aathichudi’ in the last few days. When Vijay Antony came across Dinesh’s remixed version of ‘Surangani’ (which predates YouTube’s rise to popularity), he wanted to incorporate it in a Tamil film.
Though it introduced him to the Tamil film industry, Dinesh has a few regrets over how ‘Aathichudi’ turned out. “When I worked with AR Rahman in Kadal , I was credited as Aaryan Dinesh Kanagaratnam. I adopted the stage name ADK for my hip hop work,” he says. Being credited differently in various platforms hits the brand building process, and Dinesh suffered as a result. “I wish more people knew it was I who had sung ‘Aathichudi’ because 10 years later I’m standing in the same place where I started, and I’m still trying to make a difference to music,” he adds.
Dinesh Kanagaratnam
But the mainstreaming of hip hop music in Tamil films is happening, especially since the rise to prominence of musicians like Hip Hop Tamizha. More opportunities are being offered to artistes like Arivu (who was the voice behind ‘Vaathi Raid’ in Vijay’s upcoming film Master directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj). But Dinesh says he prefers to be “picky” with whom he chooses to work with in the future. “I don’t do vocals for money. I want this culture of rap being a filler in songs to change; rap needs to be a mainstream act. For these reasons, I think I’m done with film in India unless it is Rahman or Yuvan Shankar Raja or Anirudh,” he says.
For now, though, Dinesh is busy writing a script, and is collaborating with Yuvan Shankar Raja to create “either a web series or a feature film”.
“I’m making use of the Coronavirus period to write my script,” he concludes.
