Call him a gifted music director, a passionate philanthropist or simply an Ekalvya. Whatever you choose to call him, one thing is certain and that is music director Vijay Ebenezer has announced his arrival in Kollywood with a bang.
And if the encouraging response to his numbers in Kanden, his debut film as music director, is anything to go by, then the man, without doubt, is here to stay in the industry.
Says the reticent music director, "I've been into music for 11 years. I learnt to play the guitar all by myself. Dad used to play the guitar and I'd watch him strum it. When he was not around, I would practise the 'c' chord. That was how I learnt it. Then, I left for the UK in 1995. I stayed there for a couple of years and it was there that I learnt to play the piano."
So, that explains the Ekalavya bit. But when did he start composing music and more importantly, how did he land the opportunity to compose music for a film? "Oh, that's a long story," he begins and says, "I met Harris Jayaraj after I returned from the UK and we worked on 10 gospel albums. My dad was running an orphanage and he wasn't sure whether he had to continue or whether he had to close it down. I told him that I would take over and look after it. So, I took care of it for the next 10 years. During this time, I only played in the church."
He continues, "In 2005, I tried composing a song and my friends loved it. It was then that I did a gospel album called Nesipaya. From then, every year, I have been doing a gospel album. In 2008, singer Krish sang a song for Nesipaya and he was impressed with it and that marked the beginning of a new friendship. From then, both Krish and Sangeetha became good friends. They put me on to Mugil, the director of Kanden, and we composed five or six songs for the film."
But how did Gautham Menon choose to buy the audio rights of the film? Signs off the musician, "I had gone for a birthday party at Krish's place and Gautham sir had also come for it. There, Sangeetha gave him the CD of my songs and asked him to listen to it. Four days later, she called me and asked me to get in touch with him. Gautham sir appreciated my music and said he wanted this album to be the first album of his audio label. That was how our friendship and my career started."
Harris Jayaraj: I was Vijay's assistantHarris Jayraj made a revelation at the launch of Gautham Menon’s Photon Kathaas Music label launch that had many stunned. The successful music director disclosed that many wrongly refer Vijay Ebenezer as his assistant while in reality it is vice-versa.
Harris said that he used to play key board for Vijay and had assisted him in several films before carving a niche for himself as a musician in the film industry.
Vijay is the music director for the film Kandein and the audio of this film was released under the label Photon Kathaas Music; technically making it the first album from the music company.
Placed at the lobby of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Berlin, the 25 meters high AquaDom is the largest cylindrical aquarium ever built. Filled with about 900,000 liters of seawater, it contains some 2600 fish of 56 species.
Combined with a vast amount of sandblasted glass, the giant AquaDom gives a transparent-like feeling to the lobby. Guests and visitors are able to travel through the aquarium in a glass-enclosed elevator to reach a sightseeing point and restaurant under the glass roof. Two full-time divers are responsible for the care and feeding of the fish and maintenance of the aquarium. 
