Naresh Kamath of “Kailasa” fame wins Best Background Score award at the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival for Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Manny”

 

Debutant producer Sonal Sehgal’s film ‘Manny’ swept the awards at the recently concluded Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival winning 4 awards, the highest number by any film. The film won Best Sci-Fi Thriller (runner Up), Best Background Score, Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor.

Naresh Kamath is a versatile musician who has been a founder member of Electronic, Rock and funk bands like the Bombay Black Collective and Hipnotribe. He also formed the band “Kailasa” with Kailash Kher and his brother Paresh Kamath back in2005 and the trio have been going strong since then.

On working with a foreign director, Naresh says, “Dace Puce herself is a musician so we could communicate very easily. We understood each other when citing references from world music. If a film director has a musical ear, it makes the composer’s job that much easier. I also put in a Hindi track, since the protagonist of the film is Indian. And she loved it. Music, after all, has a universal language”. Kamath has done International collaborations in the past. Also a vocalist, Naresh was the voice of Zac Efron in the Hindi rendition of High School Musical.

Naresh has collaborated on many films such as Dasvidaniya, the Blueberry Hunt, Chandani Chowk to China, Lihaaf, etc. Winning the ‘Best Background Score’ award for the Indo-Latvian Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Manny’ is his first solo International award. Says Naresh,” Covid forced us to find novel ways of working remotely. I have worked on background scores before, but never like this. Not having the director of the film in the same studio. But I guess it worked.”