Prateek Rajagopal on Scoring ‘Tu Yaa Main’ and Working on Eric André’s Upcoming Album

Composer Prateek Rajagopal describes his current India trip as “part work, part premiere, part chilling.” The Muscat-born, Mumbai-bred, Los Angeles-based artist has good reason to explain it that way. Fresh off getting married in 2025, he recently attended the red carpet premiere of filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar’s horror film Tu Yaa Main, for which he composed the score, while also returning to the city where he cut his teeth in bands like brutal death metallers Gutslit and instrumental prog act The Minerva Conduct, which he co-founded.

It was also in Mumbai where he first developed a friendship with Tu Yaa Main actor Adarsh Gourav. Rajagopal tells Rolling Stone India, “We went to college together, we’ve been friends since then and always kept in touch.” Their mutual respect for each other’s work led to Gourav recommending Rajagopal to Nambiar to score music for Tu Yaa Main, which the composer describes as a “coming of age mixed with a Creature Feature,” also starring Shanaya Kapoor.

While the songs from Tu Yaa Main feature rap crew 7Bantai’Z prominently, as well as rap by Gourav, 100RBH, beatsmith Sez on the Beat, singer-songwriter Dhruv Visvanath, composer Aditya N., and singer Lothika, among others, Rajagopal uses a mix of synth, orchestral arrangements and electronic elements to add a sense of eeriness to the score.

Rajagopal says working with Nambiar for what is now the former’s first composing gig in a major Indian film was very different from what he’s used to in Hollywood, but he rolled with it. They were working remotely (“So I was like, ‘This could either be a disaster or the best thing ever, because no one can micromanage me,’” Rajagopal recalls thinking initially), and he didn’t have a script to look through. “I was just working off of conversations and adjectives,” the composer says. A seasoned filmmaker like Nambiar, though, knew what he wanted. Early on, Nambiar asked for scores to Seventies and Eighties Creature Feature horror films and Rajagopal sent in Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, the former including music by composer John Carpenter. “It was creepy and synth-y and just weird. So I started to send him [Nambiar] stuff like that. He was really stoked about it,” Rajagopal adds. Nambiar guided Rajagopal through what worked and what felt too cliché and needed to be replaced. “A lot of it was playing ball, and that makes it exciting.”  

The composer agrees when asked if he would prefer working on the background score as well as the songs for a film project. “I definitely prefer being the one contact for everything.” He points to working with the likes of The Haxan Cloak, aka Bobby Krlic, on Him, a supernatural horror film produced by Jordan Peele. “I was working with him for almost two years, and he was the music producer of the movie as well as the score composer. He would use themes from the score and make these beats, and then rappers would sing over it. He had control over the entire sonic architecture, and that’s kind of what I enjoy doing,” Rajagopal says.

Embedded in Los Angeles and Hollywood for six years now, it feels like India’s film industry is finally calling on Rajagopal, and he’s willing to say yes. His next project as a composer is the Telugu thriller Birthday, also starring Adarsh Gourav, which came together last year and will release this summer. “This feels like round two of India in a way, but with a lot more experience and wisdom. I didn’t think it would happen this quick, to be honest, but life surprises us all,” he says.

Another big project coming up is entirely outside of the film world – comedian, actor and musician Eric André’s upcoming album. It’s coming out in May via revered label Stones Throw Records (which has been home to hip-hop titans like MF Doom, J Dilla, Madlib and more), and Rajagopal has served as executive producer, co-writer, producer and mixing engineer. “It’s been a really exciting, mammoth project that we’ve been working on for almost five years. We’re going to be playing it live as well,” Rajagopal says excitedly.

Considering we’ve already seen madcap The Eric André Show host wearing a Gutslit T-shirt and even visiting India for Rajagopal’s wedding, this album feels like a natural collaboration between the artists. Rajagopal says, “He [André] actually went to Berklee and studied jazz bass. He’s a fantastic musician. It’s definitely a very unique record, one of a kind. It’s not a comedy record at all.”

While there’s a lot coming up, Rajagopal is personally most excited by the challenge of bridging the gap between the worlds of scoring and composing. “Scoring is what I’ve focused on in the West, but I also know there’s a strong emphasis on songs in India,” he points out. “And so I think blending those two worlds could be really exciting.”