I (soundtrack)

A. R. Rahman was selected to compose the original songs and background score for the film.[4] In early July 2012, singer Vijay Prakash recorded the track "Pareshanayya" (Telugu version of "Mersalayitten").[5] In January 2013, the song "Aila Aila" was recorded. Karky called it as the "most challenging song" he had ever worked on.[6] As some part of the film's story is about modeling, his team created a compilation of six-seven commercials that play to this song. According to Karky, "The lyrics of Aila Aila was the most difficult to pen as each line will have two different meanings, one is what you hear and one is what you are going to watch on the screen".[7][8] The five and a half minute track blends genres like pop, bhangra, opéra comique elements and electronic beats.[9] In an interview with The Hindu, S. Shankar stated that he wanted unusual music for I with extensive experimentation. He called the experimentation most evident in this track especially the operatic part. The song slightly touches underlying feeling of romance.[10] Portions of the track "Ennodu Nee Irundhaal" sung only by Sunitha Sarathy were recorded on 14 February 2013.[11] Rahman was supposed to have sung "Ennodu Nee Irundhaal" but chose Sid Sriram because the latter sang it well and Rahman felt that Sriram didn't earn the deserving recognition through track "Adiye" from Kadal, thus gave a second opportunity.[12] Lyricist Madhan Karky's third song in the film was recorded by mid – September 2013.[13] In May 2014, Rahman through his bulletin board system of Reddit stated that the film songs have more youth-oriented voices.[14] The track "Mersalaayiten" was recorded by Anirudh Ravichander and Neeti Mohan in the span of July – August 2014.[15][16] On 4 July 2014, the recording of all the songs for both the versions – the original Tamil version and the dubbed Telugu version were completed.[17][18] Pravin Mani was involved in post-production of the album for two months. He was recruited for the work of recording ancillaries and corrections.[19] Madhan Karky explained the meanings of the Tamil words he had used in the song "Ladio" on his Twitter page.[20]

On 24 March 2014, Sony Music India acquired the audio rights of the film.[21] The official soundtrack album cover of the film was released on 6 September 2014.[22] The audio launch was planned for a release in Canada,[23] but the film's producer, Venu Ravichandran, asserted that the music of the Tamil version would be released at a grand event at the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on 12 September 2014.[24] On 1 September 2014, Arnold Schwarzenegger confirmed himself as an invitee at the forthcoming event;[25] also Kannada actor and singer Puneeth Rajkumar and Telugu actor Rana Daggubati was as chief guests.[26] Ravichandran said Rahman would present the songs in a fashion similar to a live music concert.[27]

International bubble artist Ana Yang, wife of the 16-time Guinness World Record holder, Fan Yang, performed as part of the event. Weta Workshop artists who have worked on the film would provided the makeup for the background dancers, who delivered the performances wearing the actual costumes from the respective songs. A fashion show by the film's costume designer took place.[27] A rough cut version of the song "Merasalaayiten" leaked onto the internet a day prior to the music launch.[28]

Bobby Simha and singer Chinmayi hosted the audio launch.[29] Anirudh Ravichander, Karthik, Keba Jeremiah, Neeti Mohan, Haricharan, Natalie Di Luccio, A. R. Rahman, Amy Jackson and Vikram were part of the stage performances.[30] The team from Weta Workshop was introduced after the song "Ennodu Nee Irundhaal" was performed.[31] In addition to the songs from the soundtrack album, Rahman also performed a few tracks from his previous compositions, which were "Oorvasi Oorvasi", "Chikku Bukku Rayile", "Ottagathai Kattiko", "Muqabala", "Petta Rap", "Maya Machindra", "Shakalaka Baby", "Girlfriend", "Colombus Columbus", "Athiradi Kaalam" and "Irumbile Oru Irudhaiyam".[32] The audio launch event was telecasted on Jaya TV on 3 October 2014, coinciding with Vijayadasami celebrations.

Backing Vocals[64]

Nivas, Santhosh Narayanan, Deepak, Arjun Chandrasekar, Pooja A. V., Aanchal Singh, Maria Roe Vincent

K.M.M.C. Choir conducted by Neuman Pinto for the song "Ennodu Nee Irundhal"

Personnel

• Guitars: Keba Jeremiah
• Bass: Keith Peters, Keba Jeremiah
• Violin: Ganesh
• Indian Rhythm: T. Raja, Kumar, Neelakandan, Raju, Laxminarayan, Vedachalam

Production

• Producer: A. R. Rahman
• Mastering: S. Sivakumar
• Chennai Strings Orchestra: V. J. Srinivasamurthy (at AM Studios, Chennai)
• Engineers:
  • Suresh Permal, Srinidhi Venkatesh, Vinay S. Hariharan (at Panchathan Record Inn, Chennai)
  • Tony Joy, Kevin Doucette (at Panchathan Hollywood, LA)
  • S. Sivakumar, Kannan Ganpat, Karthik Sekaran, Anantha Krishnan, Pradeep (at AM Studios, Chennai)
• Vocal supervision: Srinivas, Srinidhi Venkatesh
• Mixing: Kevin Doucette, Suresh Permal | P. A. Deepak & Ishaan Chhabra for the song "Merasalaayiten (Remix)"
• Additional programming: Ranjit Barot, Pravin Mani, T. R. Krishana Chetan, Marc, Hentry Kuruvilla | Soumya Sejpal for the song "Ladio"
• Music co-ordinators: Noell James, Vijay Mohan Iyer
• Musicians' fixer: R. Samidurai

• I
• A. R. Rahman discography