Ravi Basrur

Biography

*Ravi Basrur* (born Kiran on 1 January 1984) is an acclaimed Indian music composer, sound designer, lyricist, and film director who works predominantly in Kannada cinema, alongside high-profile projects across Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam film industries. Renowned for his heavy percussion-driven orchestrations, thundering background scores, and immersive soundscapes, he is one of the most prominent pan-Indian technicians to emerge from Sandalwood. Born in Basrur, a coastal village in the Kundapura taluk of the Udupi district in Karnataka, he was raised in an artisanal family with roots in traditional blacksmithing and temple sculpting. Drawn to devotional bhajan mandalis and Yakshagana folk music from childhood, he faced severe financial hardship during his youth and worked several odd jobs while teaching himself keyboard and rhythm programming. In homage to a benefactor named Ravi who bought him his very first musical keyboard, he adopted the name Ravi Basrur when entering the film industry. He made an explosive feature debut as a music director with Prashanth Neel's directorial debut Ugramm (2014), where his intense, adrenaline-pumping score won him the SIIMA Award for Best Background Score. He followed this with scores for films across genres, including Karvva (2016), Anjani Putra (2017), and Mufti (2017). His career reached unprecedented heights through his historic collaboration on Prashanth Neel and Yash's magnum opus K.G.F: Chapter 1 (2018). His wall of sound, haunting choral arrangements, and brass motifs played a defining role in the film's pan-Indian cult success, earning him the Karnataka State Film Award for Best Music Director and the SIIMA Award for Best Music Director. He solidified his pan-Indian stature with the massive sequel K.G.F: Chapter 2 (2022) and went on to handle major multi-lingual tentpoles, including Prashanth Neel's Prabhas-starrer Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire (2023), Salman Khan's Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (2023), Ajay Devgn's Bholaa (2023), and Bhairathi Ranagal (2024). Beyond composing, Basrur is a dedicated filmmaker deeply invested in regional storytelling. Working out of his high-tech studio built right in his native village of Basrur, he has written and directed several distinctive feature films, including the Kundagannada-dialect features Gargar Mandala (2014) and Bilindar (2016), the critically praised children's horror-drama Kataka (2017), the all-children commercial parody Girmit (2019), Kadal (2024), and Veera Chandrahasa (2025). Blending traditional coastal rhythm sensibilities with modern symphonic metal and electronic production, he remains a transformative musical force in Indian cinema.