Ratheesh Vegha

Career

Ratheesh completed his degree in music from Madras University. After his degree Ratheesh pursued a short course in sound engineering. But all the while he nursed hopes of becoming a Carnatic vocalist. He learnt music from Thrissur R. Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar.

For nearly two years Ratheesh spearheaded Music Talks on Malayalam channel Asianet. This show also provided the turnaround in Ratheesh's career. "It was during this time that I met Gopi Sunder, the noted music director and programmer. He told me that I could try my hand at composing music and also introduced me to many people in the music field. I believed in Gopi Sunder." -says Ratheesh Vega.

Nothing came on a platter for Ratheesh. He virtually slogged it out, beginning with jingles. He has done jingles in all the South Indian languages with numerous clients and for many big brands. Some of them like Kalyan Silks, Josco, MCR and Joy Alukkas did a lot to soar his stock. Ratheesh won the Pepper Award in 2010 for his striking jingles.

In between all this, Ratheesh worked on a couple of albums. And these albums helped find his way into films. Of these 'Cafe Love' and 'Njanum Ente Ayyappa' had tunes with the typical Ratheesh Vegha stamp – a judicious blend of the East and West styles of music. "The Ayyappa devotional for Vox Music, US, was designed quite differently from the usual ones of the genre. It was priced at seven dollars and sold around 5,000 copies. But it was 'Café Love' (Sathyam Audios) that gave me my film break."- Remembers Ratheesh.

‘Café Love' had tracks sung by Unni Menon, Sujatha Mohan, Biju Narayanan, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Benny Dayal, Gopi Sunder and others. It had some melodies like Unni Menon's 'Ormayil…' and the trendy pop-styled 'Nestle coffee…' by Biju Narayanan and Thulasi Yatheendran.

He was introduced to Milan Jaleel, by one of his friends,who had heard the music of 'Cafe Love.' He immediately offered Ratheesh a chance in his film Cocktail. Music of Cocktail turned to be his best soundtrack, in which the songs like Neeyam Thanalinu by Vijay Yesudas and Thulasi Yatheendran topped the charts for weeks. And then the second chance for him came from Milan Jaleel himself to work in his next project, 'Kasargod Khaderbhai'.

Lalisom - The Lal Effect

Ratheesh was the musician in charge for the music band "Lalisom". The band's maiden show was at the 2015 National Games of India. The band drew flak from the social media and some sections of the Malayalam film fraternity for charging an amount of ₹1.60 crores for its first show, later the show was also criticized for poor performance which included lip-syncing to a previously recorded audio tape.^[6][7][8] Director Vinayan had criticized Mohanlal, who leads the band, for charging such a hefty amount, when Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar attended the function without charging any money.^[9] Following the criticism, Mohanlal announced that he would be returning the cost of Rs 1.60 crore to Government of Kerala.^[10] But the government rejected Mohanlal's offer saying that the heat generated by the event was quite regrettable and the Government’s morality would not allow it to take back the money. The government also said, Mohanlal had not personally benefitted from the amount (Rs 1.63 crore) which he received since it was meant to meet the stage expenses and remuneration for the artistes. Even if the band is not dispersed there was no further activities yet.

Personal life

Ratheesh lives in Thrissur with his wife Dr. Anu Ratheesh Vega and son Nadhin Ratheesh Vega.