On his background

I am a Tamil Brahmin from Tirunelveli born and brought up in Delhi. Right from my childhood I had an obsession for music and have learnt Carnatic, Western and Hindustani music. No one in my family was into music. So they wanted me to pursue my studies and take up a conventional job. Though I am a qualified Charted Accountant, I didn't want to take up a job and instead wanted to concentrate on music. I worked at Delhi Doordharshan as well as in Delhi Radio Station.

On entry in to films

I started singing and composing songs for All India Radio's 'Yuva Vani programme', when I was 17. I was not allowed to sing existing songs, so I was forced to create my own music. Those were my first official compositions. In the late eighties I started making devotional albums, and later doing commercials for advertising agencies. Then I got my first break when I composed the title track of Hansa Vision's mega soap "Vizhuthugal". After this I had composed the title songs for many of Hansa's projects. In 1995, I got the first film offer from Telugu Sogasu Chooda Taramaa by Gunasekhar and that was a hit and after which I did 15 Telugu movies and 3 Kannada movies. It was in 1998 my dream to compose music for a Tamil film came true when director Saran offered the Ajith starrer Kaadhal Mannan. The song 'Unai Paartha Pinbhu' became a huge hit. On request from Saran sir and Vairamuthu sir I cut short my name from Ramani Bharadwaj to Bharadwaj

On selecting singers

Personally I feel that the most ideal voice for a song would be the artistes who perform those songs in the film. That was the reason I used Karthik's voice in Poo Veli, and Prashanth's in Parthean Rasithean. I am unable to use the artistes continuously because of time constraints. Even I have sung 'Avaravar Vazhkaiyil' in Cheran's Paandavar Bhoomi for Rajkiran.

On 'O Podu', which was a turning point

When we sat for composing for Gemini Saran and Vairamuthu asked me to create a catchy number from the common expression among college students O Podu, I did not know it would become a huge hit. The song's success was due to the good understanding and joint effort between Saran, Vairamuthu and me. We vibe well and in earlier occasions we have given good numbers in films like Kadhal Mannan, Amarkalam and Paarthean Rasithean. And again in our combination Jay Jay's songs are already a hit.