Podcast Link : Sound Designer Podcast

There are so many stories in this world that are waiting to be told, but even the most engaging stories and stunning visuals fall short without sound effects.

Karthik Mohan, our next pathbreaker, Sound Designer/Editor (Motion Picture and Television industry LA, Hollywood), works on a variety of feature films produced both in the US and in India, documentaries, commercials, short films and digital content.

Karthik talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about leveraging his interests in physics and coding in a creative space such as sound design that allows one to push the boundaries using technology and imagination !

For students, learning to think about sound and tell stories using sound is something that is a journey of a lifetime. And its absolutely worth it !

Karthik , can you share your background with our young readers?

I am from Chennai, a beautiful coastal city in southern India. Right from my childhood, I have been an avid reader and have also been very fascinated with historical and mythological stories. My dad would take me to the movies every week and I just loved the experience of watching action films on the big screen. My fascination with rhythms lead me to learn to play the Tabla. I did have all these interests but at that point I hadn’t seriously thought about what career path to take. In high school, I was the school topper in Physics and was also very interested in coding since we were learning C++ then. Without giving it much thought, I got into the whole IIT/Engineering entrance exam preparation route and just went with the flow. 

What did you do for graduation/post-graduation?

I did my BTech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from VIT University, Vellore and later on for post-graduation I did my MFA – Film Production with an emphasis in Sound Design from Chapman University, USA.

Dodge was almost an automatic choice for me for three reasons. First was the proximity to the Hollywood. Second was that Dodge was the only film school that offered a dedicated Sound Design course as opposed to a general film course. That to me was very important since I would be deeply exploring and learning about my discipline from day one while learning about the other aspects of filmmaking as well. The third reason was that Dodge offered unlimited access to the best softwares, plugins and the best facilities like a dedicated Foley Recording room, Mix Stages equipped with the latest Avid S-6 Mixing consoles that allowed us to learn to mix in the latest surround sound formats. This sort of technology is used in the biggest state-of-the-art sound studios in Hollywood and when I graduated it helped me hit the ground running and adapt easily to the highest level of sound work. The Dodge brand as I have seen first-hand in the industry has really helped me. There is a solid network of alumni doing some great work. Plus, it is a well-known film school. This automatically helps make strong connections and has definitely acted as a strong gateway into Hollywood for me. 

What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and unusual career in Sound Design?

During my undergrad days, I met a group of people interested in cinema. The digital era had just kicked in and director Karthik Subbaraj had just made it big with Pizza and Jigarthanda. Everyone had a DSLR camera and wanted to make short films to emulate his success. It was around this time that I watched a Kamal Haasan film titled Uttama Villain and was so impressed and inspired to write screenplays. So, I started writing my own stories and making them into short films with friends and they were generally well received. One film even clocked in more than 2M views on YouTube. But the biggest feedback I got was that the film lacked realistic sound and smooth dialogue. No one in my group knew what good sound was, let alone knowing how to create it. This was affecting the quality of my films and I decided to get to the bottom of it. Thus began a fascinating journey of exploring and learning about film sound.

How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path.

To get more experience I slowly started sound designing short films for friends, recording sounds and created a library of my own to cut from. I interned at Sync Cinema, a leading sound studio in Chennai and learned from the best in the industry there. Parallelly, we had just started learning about Digital Signal Processing and Analog circuits at college and I was beginning to correlate those concepts to understand more about the Equalizers, Compressors, Noise Gates etc and the different kinds of microphones that were used in sound.  I got the opportunity to attend a workshop by Randy Thom, Director of Skywalker Sound at Yash Raj Films, Mumbai. I was able to watch and analyze the sound of classics like Barton Fink, No Country for Old Men, Cast Away and that gave me a whole new perspective on how sound could be used to tell stories in cinema. Film sound was this beautiful melting pot of storytelling, music, technology and cinema. This was when I realized that I wanted to do sound for the rest of my life and decided to come to the USA for film school.

How did you get your first break?

As a believer in destiny, I feel that the projects I work on, choose me rather than the other way around. I usually never say no to a project if I have the time to work on it. My work on Las Escondidas, got me a nomination for the MPSE Verna Fields Award. MPSE is short for Motion Picture Sound Editors and is the premiere organization for sound editing professionals around the world. That opened a lot of doors for me and allowed me to interact with the biggest names in film sound. Some of them were kind enough to let me observe and learn from them first hand and that is how my journey started. Soon, I started working on projects with my mentors, starting off with foley editing on small films. 

Movies are primarily a visual medium—but even the most breathtaking visuals fall short without sound effects. From the sound of footsteps creeping closer to the rustling of clothing as a character moves, foley sounds add depth to a film and immerse audiences into the onscreen world.

From there, I also got some opportunities to work on digital content for shows like The Wheel of Time and Hanna. One thing led to another and I got my big break with 2 feature films. One was the Tamil film Mahaan (Directed by Karthik Subbaraj, starring Chiyaan Vikram) and the other was the Indie Thriller The Girl on the Mountain, both of which are available on Amazon Prime Video.

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?

The nature of my work was very similar to what I had done on the smaller films and was exactly what film school had trained me for. But no one prepares you for the pressure that is part and parcel of the bigger films. The fact that you have to deliver very high quality of work in a relatively shorter span of time as compared to the other films I had worked on till then, was something I had to get used to. In addition to this, thinking about the fact that the work you are doing is going to be viewed by millions of people overwhelmed me. In such situations, the mind starts questioning every little thing. So, the first thing I did was to consciously remove the fear from my mind and reminded myself as to why I wanted to pursue film sound. And what that did for me ultimately was that I was able to trust myself to make some decisions and start choosing the sounds for each scene with confidence. Of course, certain things can only develop with seat time and experience. But to get to that stage of mastery, it is very important to start making decisions without worrying about failing. 

Craft wise the challenges I had to face was that I was dealing with two completely different film aesthetics. Sound wise, a lot of the Tamil films are larger than life while films made here in Hollywood generally go for the “Less is More” principle. It was a very interesting process to see how the same sounds used in different contexts can have vastly varying emotional impacts on the audience. 

Where do you work now? 

I am based out of Los Angeles and work in the Motion picture and television industry in Hollywood. 

My work includes a variety of feature films produced both in the US and in India, documentaries, commercials, short films and digital content. Some of my notable sound editing work includes projects like the big budget Indian blockbuster Jawan starring Shah Rukh Khan, Indian 2 starring Kamal Haasan, Indie thrillers At the Gates, The Girl on the Mountain, Web Series Sales are Dope and A Grunt’s Life : Season 2, the musical Long December and the documentary Interpreters Wanted. I have also worked on festival hits like Iravin Nizhal, Jigarthanda Double X, Paper Flowers, Four Samosas among others along with digital content for Samsung, Levis, Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Skin. My work is available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, AMC+, The Roku Channel, PBS, Vet Tv and has also played prestigious festivals like Festival De Cannes, Tribeca Film Festival, South by Southwest Film Festival, IFFR – Rotterdam among others.

What is it you love about this job? 

The sounds we hear in films are not exactly what we see. Several sounds are layered carefully to create that cinematic reality. This process of choosing the sounds and layering them is what excites me the most. Depending on the story and what we want the audience to experience in the story, we can get as creative as we want. Personally, I don’t do well with routines or monotony and the best thing with the process of designing sounds is that no two sounds are going to be the same. As you start recording sounds and acquiring libraries, you slowly begin to dissociate a sound from its image in real life. That allows you to push boundaries. The same sounds when played at different levels or pitches can sound very different from each other. My process is pretty much the same while designing something as simple as a door opening to something as detailed as a car chase. I love sound and the amount of attention we need to give to the little details to find the right sound. That is the best motivation I can ever get.

How does your work benefit society? 

There are so many stories in this world that are waiting to be told. I’m happy to be a part of films and shows that give these stories a voice. For example, Interpreters Wanted, a feature documentary I worked on as supervising sound editor had a profound impact on me. 14 years in the making, the film follows the story of two brothers who served alongside U.S. Forces in Afghanistan as interpreters for over a decade. Desperate to escape the Taliban’s rise to power they reached out to their American friends to help them and the film traces their journey from there. Going beyond the combat outpost, the explosions, the gunshots and the chaos, my director was very clear that he wanted to touch hearts and minds through this story because at its core, the film is a story of brotherhood and brings to the audience a very human story filled with a lot of emotion.  

Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!

I love watching action films and it has been my dream to work on big action films from the very beginning. So, when I got to know that director Atlee was going to be  collaborating with Shah Rukh Khan on Jawan, I was very excited for the film as an audience. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that I would get to work on that film as a sound effects editor. Not only did I get to work with some of the biggest names in the business but I also got the opportunity to create some really cool sound effects for the film. And for that, I must thank my mentor and Sound Designer of Jawan, Kunal Rajan, for his support and belief in me. Right from day one, everyone on the team knew this film was going to do well. The hype and frenzy surrounding the film before release was amazing to experience. It had a huge theatrical release in over 10,000 screens around the globe including in advanced immersive formats like ICE and 4DX. The film went on to become the biggest blockbuster of 2023 in Indian cinema and was also one of the most watched films on Netflix.

Your advice to students based on your experience?

I think the biggest thing is to gain awareness on what the film industry is really like. Watching films and making them are as different as chalk and cheese. All the glamour and glitz can be really fascinating but that is not what the industry is about. A lot of people are misinformed and blindly join the film industry and then struggle once illusion fades away. One can grow only if they are extremely passionate about the art and craft of cinema. Learning to think about sound and tell stories using sound is something that is a journey of a lifetime. I was fortunate to have some guidance early on in my career and that helped me learn more about the different roles within the sound department and make informed decisions about my career.

Technology has become very accessible to everyone today and there is a lot more exposure thanks to social media. Networking has also become much easier due to this. Learning to use a DAW or picking up the latest noise reduction tool doesn’t take much time. But knowing how and when to use these tools is a very difficult art to master. For that we must focus on strengthening our fundamentals. Understanding the physics of sound (Acoustics) and how our ear and brain process that sound (Psychoacoustics) is something that every person entering sound should know. We must listen to a lot of cinema to understand how sound and storytelling has evolved over the years from the fixed channel Mono, Stereo, Surround to the object-based Dolby Atmos today. The industry is evolving at a rapid rate today and it is essential to stay up to date.

Future Plans?

Test, on which I was a sound effects editor, has just had its world premiere on Netflix. This film stars National Award winner R.Madhavan, Siddharth and Nayanthara. That was a very interesting experience. I’ve also just wrapped up work as supervising sound editor on a feature documentary which I’m really excited for. Aside from that, I have some really exciting Hollywood films coming up over the next few months of which one is a monster-horror film. I recently upgraded my sound recording kit and I’ve been recording and designing some really interesting sounds and textures. With every new sound and every film, a new challenge awaits and as long as you’re open to learning, the journey is always exciting!