Music maestro Ilaiyaraaja records with the symphony orchestra in Budapest for Papa Rao Biyyala's Music School

Music School, the much-awaited musical with compositions by Ilaiyaraaja is getting final touches in Budapest where the background score of the film was orchestrated and recorded yesterday - Jyothi Venkatesh

Featuring 11 songs, Music School is written and directed by Papa Rao Biyyala. The film includes 3 songs from the Oscar-winning and much-loved classic The Sound of Music.

The film is produced by the Hyderabad-based company Yamini Films. The producers planned to record background music in Budapest to match the quality of the music from The Sound of Music.

“Dr. Ilaiyaraaja has written many parts of the film's background music for a symphony orchestra,” director Biyyala said. “Hence we approached the Budapest Symphony Orchestra – one of the leading orchestras in the world.”

Earlier three songs from The Sound of Music were orchestrated by the London Philharmonic Orchestra before the shoot of the film. So the music composer and the director thought it would be wise to have an orchestra of equal stature like the Budapest Symphony score the rest of the music of the film.

The recording was done at the Tom-Tom Studio in Budapest and Laszlo Kovacs conducted the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. “I am very happy that Raaja sir gave so much time and involvement to his film,” director Biyyala said.

Music School is about how school systems and parents put pressure on children to continue with endless hours of studies, with the hope of producing doctors and engineers, thereby leaving no time for art and leisure activities.

The film’s cast is led by Shriya Saran, Sharman Joshi, Shaan, Prakash Raj, Suhasini Mulay, Benjamin Gilani, Gracy Goswami and Ozu Barua. One of India’s ace cinematographers Kiran Deohans filmed Music School.

Music School will be screened on the 12th and 18th of September in the industry/market section at the Toronto International Film Festival.