There are many works in writing and visual media on Lord Sri Raghavendra Swamy, but Raghu Bhat’s brainchild, ‘Rayara Darshana’, is unique and has come at the right time.
At the divine place of Mantralaya, while addressing the media, Raghu Bhat explained the eight months of effort, an investment of over Rs.15 lakhs, and the immeasurable support from leading technicians in preparing ‘Rayara Darshana’, a 4.5-minute, first-of-its-kind album song sung by Aby, with music composed by Ajanish Lokanath and backed by CR Bobby.
“We have not kept count of the shooting days. On many days, we captured just one shot, but the purpose was to get the natural feel of all the rituals performed at the Brindavana of Sri Raghavendra Swamy. We deployed four cameras, and no one has done anything like this on a temple,” opines Raghu Bhat. “We have covered all types of Pooje and Puraskaara offered to Sri Raghavendra Swamy. My wife, Suguna, stood by me as the producer. She worked very hard, and despite suffering a scorpion bite, she remained a pillar of support to the team behind the creation of ‘Rayara Darshana’,” he says.
“We approached Sri Subhudendra Thirtha Swamiji regarding this project and consulted various people while preparing the script for ‘Rayara Darshana’,” says Bhat. The song is available on the Lakshmi Ganesh YouTube channel for people across the world to watch.
There is also an 11-minute documentary that highlights the significance and history of Mantralaya. “We first thought of this project on November 12 last year,” recalls Suguna Raghu. “We have not made this project with the intention of earning money. This is our offering to Sri Raghavendra Swamy. We have many more commercial projects in the pipeline,” she adds.
Apparently, this is the first devotional album song for ace composer Ajanish Lokanath. He had earlier worked on themes of Hari and Hara in the previous films of the Kantara franchise. Now, he has composed music for Sri Raghavendra Swamy in this devotional album.
“I was aspiring to compose a song like this,” recalls the soft-spoken Ajanish Lokanath. “We brought a fresh thought to our work over more than 10 days, and sound engineers from different places contributed to the song. For this work, Rayaru himself was the inspiration,” he says. “I am truly blessed,” feels Ajanish Lokanath.
Aby, a mellifluous singer born in Canada, with Tamil and Hindi as his known languages, is extremely happy about this singing opportunity. Good-looking and equally gifted as a singer, Aby thanks his parents for this opportunity. He recalls that his mother in Canada had asked him to recite ‘Poojyaya Raghavendra…’ every day since childhood.
“Coming to this song and visiting Mantralaya, I have absorbed its divine power,” he says. “This is a very special song in my career, and everything happened without any hassles.” Thanking his good fortune and Ajanish Lokanath, Aby says, “He guided me in every way to deliver a lovely song. In ‘Banni Guru Raaya…’, he even corrected my pronunciation of the word ‘Ayya’ so perfectly.”
CR Bobby, who penned the lyrics and worked closely with Ajanish Lokanath on the song, says all this was possible only because of Raghu Bhat. She also shared her special belief that Sri Raghavendra Swamy is alive.
At the media meet, veteran actress Girija Lokesh, fondly known as Girijamma, recalled how she prayed to Sri Raghavendra Swamy when she was pregnant 55 years ago. “I wished for my child to be born on a Thursday, and it happened. I respectfully named my child ‘Parimala’, who later became Pooja Lokesh,” she recalled.
Srinidhi Karnam, who extended immense support to the project, said that everyone worked with heart and soul without any expectations.
Nagesh Acharya, a prominent cinematographer of Kannada cinema and the first to introduce digital cameras to the Kannada film industry, said the offer to serve as DOP came unexpectedly. “The entire team worked patiently, and every day of shooting felt like a festival. We kept Mantralaya as our main focus and also shot for a few days at Nava Vrundavana.”
Srisha, the son-in-law from the Poorvashrama family of Sri Subhudendra Swamiji, who was also a guiding force behind the project, was present at the media meet.
National Award-winning editor Suresh Urs has edited ‘Rayara Darshana’, an epoch-making devotional album song.
